


Star Dust and Broken Dreams

by CoolChicken78



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alexis | Quackity Needs a Hug, Angry TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Caring Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade Friendship (Video Blogging RPF), Creeper Hybrid Sam | Awesamdude, Floris | Fundy Has Abandonment Issues, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Ghost TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ghost Wilbur Soot, Grayson | Purpled Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Older Sibling Luke | Punz, Protective Karl Jacobs, Protective Sam | Awesamdude, Resurrected Wilbur Soot, Sad Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Scared TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Sleepy Bois Inc Angst, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Toby Smith | Tubbo Deserves Better, Toby Smith | Tubbo Has PTSD, Toby Smith | Tubbo Loves Bees, Toby Smith | Tubbo is Not Okay, Traitor Niki | Nihachu, Traumatized Tommyinnit (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Jack Manifold, Villain Niki | Nihachu, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Worried Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Younger Sibling Grayson | Purpled (Video Blogging RPF), eret being the lgbt royal that everyone needs lol even if hes not the main character in this story, eventually not that that spoils anything just pretend you didn't see that tag lol, i promise everything will be fine in the end... eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29200887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolChicken78/pseuds/CoolChicken78
Summary: Its been a week since Tommy and Tubbo "defeated" Dream and freed the server. Dream is in prison, Tubbo is in Snowchester, everyone else seems to have moved on with their lives... so why can't Tommy?Ranboo knows that Dream is gone. He knows this because Dream is locked away. Locked away in an inescapable prison. Locked away behind layers of lava and obsidian walls ... obsidian walls that Ranboo keeps mysteriously waking up outside out with broken pickaxes, bloody hands, and terrifying blanks in his memory...Tubbo knows that he should feel safe now. Everything should be fine, Tommy is alive and has his discs back, Ranboo lives with Phil and Techno now, Dream is gone... locked away. And Tubbo has Snowchester, a snowy, seaside village that he's built with the help of Jack Manifold and Foolish... so why does he feel the need to protect himself with dangerous weapons... and why does it feel like people are hiding things from him?Sam is fed up of all the kids on this server having to feel so much pain. He sees the effect it has on all of them, Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo... even Purpled isnt as okay as he pretends to be. Sam's had enough. Time to take matters into his own hands...
Comments: 22
Kudos: 267





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Summary:  
> loads and loads of angst and stuff  
> also this is based on some of the events on the smp but i will alter it i think so be warned  
> also this is my first time writing on here so hopefully it works lmao
> 
> TW: also just a warning that there will be lots of angst, probably mentions of self-harm and suicide, as well as mentions and references and maybe even descriptions of abuse, descriptions of blood
> 
> ill do my best to put more warnings at the beginning of chapters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: none i think, if something is triggering let me know so i can change this pls

Watery sunlight washed over the ominous crater that was once known as L'Manberg, casting long black shadows down the sides of the pit and dying the wilting, brown grass that clung to the edges of it a gold-yellow. The sky was soaked from inky-black to pale grey as the rain started to slow and the clouds thinned slightly, the sound of the heavy droplets that had been echoing around the hole all night becoming a quieter pitter-patter sound as weak rays of sun began to creep over the SMP.

A young boy sat on the edge of the crater, dangerously close to the edge - as if he didn't particularly care whether he fell into the abyss. Despite being tall for his age, the boy appeared small and broken - his silhouette insignificant against the gaping hole of L'Manburg as his long legs dangled in the air, his bare feet scraping the edges of the rough rock of the crater every so often. A soaked trench coat was pulled close around his frail and scarred body, almost as patched and weathered as he was.

Tommy paused his work as the first rays of sun shone directly onto the pale skin of his face, temporarily blinding his tired blue irises, illuminating the dark circles under his eyes from many sleepless nights, and highlighting the many scars on his otherwise youthful skin. His dripping wet hair was plastered to his forehead, its usual blond colour turned dark brown by that nights rain, the water dripping off stray strands and rolling down his cold skin and down his cheeks, almost looking like tears.

Quiet music was playing, the notes drifting and twirling, as if they were dancing a waltz, from a battered jukebox placed behind the teenager, the clashing notes of Cat blending and bleeding together over the sounds of some of the members of the SMP who liked to be up early, arising in the distance.

He was too preoccupied to notice a certain hybrid creeper flitting through the eerily silent morning, carefully navigating around the edge of the crater and agilely leaping over rocks and clumps of dead grass as he made his way towards the prison, studying Tommy curiously and with concern out of the corner of his eyes as he made his way past quietly and from a distance, not wanted to be noticed by the broken-looking TommyInnit. It already felt like he was intruding on a private moment, and the thought of interrupting further wasn't an appealing one. So Sam hurried on.

Tommy looked down at his lap, at the progress he had made in the night.

Lying on his lap was a curious object. It's sharp edges were almost singing to Tommy as the sunlight finally arose above the building that had been previously obstructing it, the warm, bright light causing the black weapon to glint evilly as the beams hit it. It wasn't perfect yet, but it was getting closer.

Tommy carefully wrapped his project in a large, fraying piece of cloth, hiding it from the view of any curious onlookers, and placed the mysterious object on the ground next to him. He surveyed the crater as he swung his legs, ignoring the lump of pain in his chest that he refused to acknowledge, knowing that if he did, he would shatter into a thousand pieces. That he would be so thoroughly broken, his spirit crushed, that no one would be able to fix him. He was too broken for that... and then Dream would have won.

Tommy sighed and then climbed away from the edge, coming away from the danger that he had been sat near with no fear for what felt like every night of his life, when it had in fact only been every night for just over a week. He stretched, his long limbs reaching outwards and his head tipping back slightly as his joints all clicked and cracked in a way that a boy his age probably shouldn't... but then again he had been sat on the ground all night.

He carefully removed the music disc from the jukebox and slid it into his battered and slightly burnt backpack as he gathered his project in his other hand and carefully strapped it onto his bag, so when he slid the bag on, one end of the covered object jutted out above his right shoulder and the other the left side of his lower back. Tommy took a pair of worn leather boots out from under a small rock where he had been sheltering them from the rain and slid his bare feet into them.

Hoisting the jukebox into his arms, Tommy started trekking back to his house, his tattered bag feeling heavy from the weight of his music disc, not because it was particularly heavy, in fact it was probably the lightest thing he was carrying, but because of what music discs now meant to him. What they symbolised.

On the way back, he passed Ranboo wondering seemingly aimlessly away from the direction of the prison, his hands bloodied and his face blank. A broken netherite pickaxe was strapped to the tall half-enderman's back, the two pieces shimmering slightly in the sun as their enchantments glowed - trying to fix themselves back together and failing.

Tommy wanted to ask him if he was okay, in fact, he was about to when a harsh, inhumane noise came from the older boy's mouth, startling Tommy into silence before he had even opened his mouth. _Was that … enderman language? Holy shit that was scary._

Tommy had paused on the oak plank path, his arms full as he stopped to stare at the older boy. He studied him intently as he shuffled towards him.

Ranboo's eyes, one red and the other green, were unusually blank, in fact, they were so blank that Tommy thought he probably could have danced around in front of the tall teenager wearing a dress and shouting swear words loudly in his face and the half-enderman wouldn't have batted an eye. Ranboo's hands were dripping blood onto the path as he walked. They were covered in various scrapes and bruises ... much like Tommy's hands had been when he was exiled. He could see that Ranboo had tried to hide his hands with bandages only for them to be shredded by whatever he had been doing. 

A horrifying though washed over Tommy as he watched the tall figure glide down the path away from him in an eerily silent state, ignoring Tommy completely as he passed him and instead brushing those horribly bloodied hands over the grass and letting out a quiet noise... a happy enderman noise if Tommy heard correctly. What if Ranboo had been at the prison? _What if he was breaking Dream out?_

Almost immediately Tommy felt stupid for jumping to conclusions, sure it was odd that Ranboo had come from that direction so early in the morning looking like he did, but it didn't automatically mean that he was breaking Dream out. Tommy was just being paranoid again, just like how Dream used to tell him he was. Plus, Ranboo would be stupid to anyway, everyone had heard the rumours about the prison that Sam had built... the mining fatigue and the hundreds of layers of lava and obsidian that kept the man he used to think of as a friend caged inside. Besides, this was Ranboo, he would never do something like that. He was just too... too ... well... _Ranboo_.

Tommy forgot about any suspicions he had as he entered his dirt home, the one that at one point he thought he'd never return to, and pulled off his bag, dumping it by the door after carefully removing his project and placing it into his enderchest. He ran a hand through his slowly drying hair and loosened the dark green bandanna that hung around his neck slightly, as it felt like it was choking him. His hand knocking against a grubby compass that hung on the inside of his battered trench coat as he brought his hand back down. 

He was tired, so very tired. He hadn't slept properly in weeks - collapsing in exhaustion and falling asleep while doing menial jobs by accident didn't count, and when he thought about it, he couldn't remember the last time he had even eaten. Tommy was exhausted. Exhausted to his very bones, to his soul even, if you believe in that. 

He slumped against his enderchest dejectedly, his long legs pulled into his chest and his face buried in his knees, curled like a ball... a protective position that was something he had perfected during his time in exile when Dream would visit...

Tommy took some deep, unsteady breaths. Each breath was jagged and uneasy. Each breath felt like too much effort, pushing against that iron band that was strapped around his chest. And Tommy could feel himself breaking then. He could feel himself fraying at the edges, he could feel himself fracturing at the heart. And it was there, curled in a ball on the floor of his dirt shack, swallowed in his dead brother's trench coat, that Tommy realised that he and Tubbo didn't win. They didn't really beat Dream. Not really, not when he was in this much pain, his grief and hurt swallowing him whole - like a black hole had opened up beneath him and he was falling into it, into a bottomless pit of darkness and despair that there was no escape from. 

Because did they really win if Dream had well and truly broken him beyond the point of repair? 


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: nightmares, descriptions of blood and injuries, memory blanks
> 
> hopefully not missed anything out, please just remember to assume that this story might trigger you if you struggle with any of these things

Ranboo grumbled slightly and whimpered in fear.

He was dreaming, dreaming that he was running and running and running. Running from a faceless, unknown enemy. Scrabbling at stone, jumping and sprinting. He froze as he ran straight into a cliff, a rocky wall so impossibly intimidating and so tall that he couldn't see the top, the suffocating grey fog that surrounded him devouring it greedily. In fact, he was almost certain that the wall never ended. That it just kept going up, and up, and up, and up.

Ranboo panted and grasped at the stone in fear. Footsteps neared, the person laughed. The sound echoed through the fog around him, the barely contained insanity seeping through the air and making Ranboo tremble. That laugh that was so eerily similar to one that Ranboo had heard before - from that horrifying voice in his head ... and from the real life version, another faceless man so insanely power hungry and wicked that he- Ranboo shook his head, clearing the fear that was paralysing his mind and grasping at the pickaxe that he suddenly remembered he had, pulling _Pickboo_ from his back and grasping it like a lifeline. He'd have to mine away. Somehow, he knew that was the only way to survive, he felt a deep pull in his gut telling him to _hurry_ , that it was _imperative_ to mine this wall. That if he didn't his life would be in danger.

Ranboo started mining. He threw himself at the wall with all the enderman strength he could muster, pickaxe hitting it again and again and again, but his arms felt too heavy, their weight slowing his movements and weakening his hits, his pickaxe as soft as gold despite its netherite nature and max enchantments. He hadn't even left a dent in the rocky wall, causing him to panic and claw at it with his hands, beating and scrabbling at the stone while tears of terror rolled down his cheeks from his blank eyes and blood started to burn and drip down his skin as he ripped and tore his flesh, staining his pale skin dark red almost as black as the inky-black that covered half his body.

He _needed_ to get through, _needed_ to break down this wall. He _needed_ to. He _had_ to. His life _depended on it._

The faceless enemy had closed in while he had been desperately throwing himself at the solid wall. Coming closer and closer and closer...

Ranboo ran, turning and running blind into the heavy grey fog that swallowed him up, blocking out the wall behind him and blinding the world around him as he cradled his bleeding hands and his broken pickaxe close to his chest. His feet hit the ground hard, making too loud slapping noises against the ground as he ran through the SMP. He could hear the person laughing behind him again, still getting closer as the noise echoed through the fog.

He tripped, and then he was falling... falling... falling... 

And then suddenly, Ranboo was away. 

He had fallen through clouds and clouds of fog and blackness, into a strange land, one that he had never seen before. But for some reason, the faceless enemy chasing him was gone. Completely gone. For the first time in a long time, Ranboo couldn't feel their looming presence guiding and poking him into every decision he made; couldn't feel those invisible ropes that were tied around his throat, and his hands, and his feet, choking him and dragging him, and dangling him over deep oceans that his mind created until he did what they asked; he couldn't feel the poison that the enemy had slipped into his mind either, the one that made him doubt himself, that warped his own brain, his own _memory_ into something that he couldn't believe, that he couldn't trust.

For the first time for as long as he could remember, Ranboo felt ... free?

The fog had cleared, revealing this new land that he seemed to have fallen into. Literally fallen into. He had landed on this strange new ground with a loud thud, causing a slight commotion among the hundreds of endermen near him, as he cause them to teleport away in shock and fear, a natural reaction to being startled.

Ranboo started to gingerly push himself up, his bleeding hands leaving shockingly bright red smears on the strange new ground, standing out in a way that was glaringly obvious. The ground looked almost yellow... yet not... like cobblestone... yet so very different. Ranboo picked up his pickaxe, which was somehow fixed again, and attempted to mine this new material. To his surprise, the ground broke almost instantly, and he gathered it into his arms. 

_Endstone._ The name rang through his head, as it always did when he picked up a new block for the first time, that was just something that happened to everyone - or so Ranboo assumed, as he had never outright asked anyone.

That was what the floor was made of.

Ranboo stared at it with fascination, so intrigued by this completely new matter. It was odd, because somehow, touching this weird cobblestone-but-not-cobblestone material was somehow ... somehow _more_ comforting than touching and holding grass. It unnerved him. Ranboo didn't like it.

The material felt almost like netherrack, Ranboo decided, only softer, more like ... more like _home_. 

He blinked in surprise at the thought and studied his surroundings. _Huh?_

Suddenly, Ranboo felt odd, all drowsy and weird, like something in this place was disagreeing with him. He brought his hand up to his face, still clutching a singular piece of the endstone in his black hand, his long nails digging into the surprisingly soft material as his vision went blurry.

Slowly, so very slowly, he lost consciousness, falling to his knees and then onto his side. The last thing he saw was the endstone rolling out of his hand and hundreds and hundreds of endermen, before the fog swallowed him up once again.

Ranboo groaned again, this time shifting slightly as his sleepy brain started to slowly surface from it's unconscious state, swimming upwards through murky waters and breaking through the surface and back into consciousness, back into reality. 

His small, yet comfy bed in his new little shack near Techno's house was much less comfortable than usual. 

Ranboo groaned again as sunlight hit his eyelids, slowly and unceremoniously waking him up to face yet another day. He went to grab at his covers only to find nothing there, his long fingers just grasping at air.

Slowly, he cracked open an eye, and then the other, and found that he wasn't in bed at all. In fact, Ranboo wasn't even sure where he was, all he could focus on was the fact that he was in the middle of a spruce forest with a complete lack of snow everywhere (so clearly nowhere near Phil and Techno's), and his pickaxe was broken again, although Ranboo distinctively remembered spending hours with Tubbo yesterday gaining xp and finding the right materials to fix it with ... right? Ranboo blinked, suddenly realising that his hands were bleeding and bruised again ... _how?_ The bandages that he had spent so long planning and carefully sneaking out of Techno's battle chests and then held back his tears as he tended to his own wounds, opting to not tell Phil and Techno, and just lie to them if they asked. Those bandages, the ones he had gone through so much pain and spent so much time to get, the ones that relieved his pain greatly ... shredded and ripped into jagged, fraying pieces and blood dripping from torn flesh on his hands and sliding down his arms like dark red rivulets of tears as he held his hands up to look at them.

_How?_

He strained his memory, trying to remember, trying, trying, trying...

 _Anything,_ he thought desperately, pulling at the roots of his contrasting black and white hair despite the gashes and scratches on his hands and the pain it caused him. _Anything. Anything. Remember something, anything ... please!_

He got nothing.

The last thing he remembered was climbing into his bed at Techno's and then ... blank.

What Ranboo did remember though, was that he had been dreaming. What about? He couldn't remember. But he remembered the fear, the feeling of not being able to escape, and then ... then that odd feeling of safety and comfort. 

He looked at his hands, a foreign feeling of a strange unknown material still lingering there. He could feel the comfort and safety that had radiated from it ... if only he could remember more.

Ranboo sighed and then patted his pockets until he remembered it was around his neck on a leather strap, hidden from view. He pulled it out and stared at it as the bright red needle frantically whizzed around a few times and then settled pointing at his chest (well actually pointing behind him), telling him to go south. It was a gift that Phil had given him a few days ago, a shiny new compass (now slightly smeared with blood from Ranboo's hands) with a needle that always pointed to Techno's house labelled " _Home_ ". When Philza had handed it to him, Ranboo had been half in shock that it was labelled " _Home_ " and half unsure as to why he needed it. That was until he spotted the knowing glint in Philza's eyes as he curled Ranboo's fingers around it, winked, and whispered "Just in case." before moving swiftly over to where Techno was about to lose control while attempting to trade with a particularly stubborn villager at the small town they were visiting (in search of something to help with Ranboo's memory issues), grabbing the male's hand as it flew to his weapon and stepping between the two as Ranboo watched, his hand clutching the compass tightly.

The thin but strong leather strip seemed to be crafted out of the same material that Phil and Techno used to tie their hair back and it was looped through a small link at the top of the compass, forming a delicate necklace that Ranboo could wear around his neck and out of site, without fear of forgetting where it was, or losing it. Phil had clearly thought of that when he made it, Ranboo didn't think he had ever been more thankful than he had been in the moment when he received that gift.

And so Ranboo gathered his strength, pushing to his feet and gathering the broken pieces of his pickaxe, and started what he assumed was a long trek home, using the compass that Phil had given him to find his way and stoutly ignoring that longing that had suddenly flared up in his chest calling for a new place, a new home, one that he couldn't fully remember, made out of odd material and with an even stranger influx of endermen...

* * *

Purpled yawned, stretching out his limbs after rolling out of bed, his entire body filling with that weird feeling he loved of slightly stiff muscles being stretched.

That was probably the first time he'd slept that deeply in a very, _very_ long time. That's probably because when you travel for as long as he had, doing what he did for a living, then you tended to get worn down eventually. And so when Purpled had made his way into his home in the Dream SMP area for the first time in months, he had collapsed into his bed and immediately fallen asleep, his eyes shutting instantly and his strong limbs becoming limp. 

It felt odd, Purpled decided, being back here again. He could tell that while he'd been away, something had changed. It wasn't the fact that L'Manburg was once again blown up - and not coming back this time from the look of it, or the fact that Dream was locked away in prison - something that everyone in the server had heard about no matter where they were and somewhere where Purpled was sure the faceless man wouldn't stay for long, or even the fact that he'd heard rumours of an egg and "blood vines" that controlled people's minds somehow. No, it wasn't any of that. Because Purpled already knew about that before he had returned. It was something else that made him feel uneasy as he dressed for the day and strapped his weapons on his body and out of site (apart from one netherite sword that he strapped to it's usual place at his back, the enchanted blade shimmering brightly and singing blood and death to him), something that he didn't know about yet that made a heavy warning feeling in his gut that told him something was amiss. But he was soon going to find out, because Purpled didn't like not knowing, it made him uneasy and uncomfortable. Because Purpled had to known everything, be the best at everything, and if he wasn't the best then he worked until he became the best, because being the best meant survival.

So Purpled left his house, navigating around the large hole that was his front door (after a creeper incident that no one had bothered to clean up) with ease, fully intent on finding out what was making him feel so on edge.

He passed a few SMP members as he strode purposefully through the early morning, Niki and Jack laughing together on the steps of Eret's museum (an unusual pair but one he wasn't going to question), Hannah (a newer member to the area, but one he had met before during their time fighting in bedwars - she was someone he could tolerate to be around) practising her fighting with Punz, and George and Sapnap with bags on their backs and whispering together with fervor, clearly arguing about something - not that Purpled cared.

They greeted him as he passed, whispering stopping abruptly and eyes going slightly wide at the sight of him. Purpled hadn't been seen in this area for months. In fact, the last time he had been here was probably during the L'Manburg and Pogtopia war, and even then it was only briefly. So the sight of Purpled, dressed in his fighting clothes and a dark purple travelling cloak with his netherite sword strapped to his back and glinting threateningly, the sun behind his back temporarily making him silhouetted, he looked like an angel of death - and it was bloody terrifying. 

Purpled nodded to the pair as he passed, leather boots hitting the ground silently and his cloak pulled up over his head, hiding his satisfied grin. He knew how intimidating he looked, he knew the fear that he struck in people, and a sick, twisted part of him loved it. Craved it.

He continued on his way, not seeing anyone else as it was still relatively early. He was sort of wondering aimlessly at this point, his feet guiding him and his mind completely focused on his surroundings.

The sounds of early morning were drifting through the air, birds chirping and distant chatter coming from the direction he'd come from. It was peaceful. Peace wasn't something Purpled was used to. 

As he was walking past TommyInnit's "house" (Purpled thought it was basically a hobbit hole), he heard a quiet gasping noise, as if someone was crying but didn't want anyone to hear. He paused and listened. There it was again, a quiet shaky inhale of breath, like someone was choking on tears. If anyone but Purpled had been passing, they probably wouldn't have heard it, but Purpled's training and time spent as an assassin or a hitman or whatever you wanted to call him, had fine tuned his senses to hear small sounds like that.

He hesitated, if Tommy was crying, Purpled didn't want to be the one to comfort him. 

He stealthily snuck towards the doorway of Tommy's home, hesitating just out of sight before peering through a gap in the oak doors. 

There, curled in a ball just outside of the light that leaked through the doors and glowed from the singular torch in his house, was TommyInnit. He was leaning against an enderchest, lanky legs pulled up to his skinny chest and head buried in his knees. Purpled froze, completely out of his comfort zone as he watched Tommy's body tremor with feebly suppressed sobs as the darkness around him seemed to soak towards him, as if the younger boy was being absorbed by it.

This was _Tommy_. TommyInnit.

And TommyInnit didn't cry. He didn't cry because he didn't care. Everybody knew that.

He hadn't cried when he lost his discs. He hadn't cried when his house got griefed every-other day, just gritting his teeth in suppressed annoyance and setting about to fix it. He hadn't cried when he was exiled from L'Manburg with Wilbur and slowly watched him go insane. He hadn't cried when Tubbo had died right in front of his very eyes, killed by his oldest brother. He hadn't cried when he had fought that very brother in the pit, blinded by grief and rage as his other brother watched and laughed as he was hit again and again and again, until Wilbur finally decided enough was enough and called Technoblade off, declaring him the victor - or so the story was told. He hadn't cried when Wilbur blew up L'Manburg either, or when he watched as his own Father stabbed him, the only brother he had ever had a true bond with, and he could do nothing as he watched as the life and insanity drained from his eyes as Wilbur Soot's soul drifted away. There was even a rumour that the boy had been struck by lightning, causing one of the strands in his hair where he was hit to pale even more and sending a jagged scar down his back, almost killing him - and he still hadn't cried. Or so that's how the stories where told.

And so when you thought about it, it didn't surprise Purpled that the teenager was finally starting to fray at the edges, and splinter at his heart, Purpled knew that if it were him, he would've been broken a long time ago - although he'd never tell anyone that. But the real question that he wanted to know that answer to was... What had happened while Purpled had been away to finally break TommyInnit?

Because Tommy must be broken, if he was crying. Because it was a well known fact across the entire server, that youngest of the legendary SBI family, _didn't cry_. And despite what he'd been through, that was a rule that everyone knew, because the idea of Tommy crying, _TommyInnit_ , was just insanity.

And so Purpled crept away, storing this information close to his heart and ignoring the slight pang he felt as he had watched a boy not even a full year younger than him finally shatter, and continued on his way. His mind whirring and his heart heavy.

Purpled thought he knew everything.

But what had he missed while he was gone? And how did it finally break TommyInnit so thoroughly that he had finally shattered, his mask crumbling and his heart bleeding out onto the dirt floor. 

And more importantly, why did that sight make Purpled want to hurt whoever hurt that crying, helpless boy?

* * *

So longer chapter I think, did you guys prefer the shorter one or the longer one? Remember that because there's so much lore on the SMP that happens while I'm sleeping because I live in the UK so I miss it, this story won't be completely accurate to that because I'm going to make up my own lore for it, inspired by the SMP. Also this story if for fun and for me to escape exam stress so updates won't be consistent and might stop for long periods of time, please don't let that stop you reading though as I'm feeling motivated at the moment and have lots of plans for this story!

Comments are welcome! What do you guys think of Ranboo and Purpled?


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Nightmares, blood and violence

The irony of Dream being locked away in the prison that he had paid Sam to build for someone else, a teenager nonetheless, was almost amusing, Sam often thought to himself. And if he'd been a different type of person, he would've laughed at it. Like Tommy had, although Sam could sense the fear that rolled off the boy at the thought of being shut away in the terrifying looking prison that he'd constructed and could see the shadows that would cloud his bloodshot, tired blue eyes whenever the prison was mentioned. 

Today Sam hadn't wanted to go to the prison. It was exhausting, feeling that mining fatigue pressing against his protective armour every second he spent there - he couldn't imagine what that felt like to Dream, who spent every second in there with no armour, feeling the weight pressing down on his bones and grinding them together. It was exhausting, doing perimeter checks and feeding Dream and replacing the clock that he knew Dream only burnt when he got lonely and wanted to see Sam's face. After watching him do this so many times on the security cameras, Sam started to piece together a pattern. It only happened after Dream slept and woke up suddenly, his hand flying to reach a weapon that wasn't there; if Sam hadn't been to see him in a few days and the silence of the cell was starting to consume him; or when Dream had asked for visitors only to be told that no one wanted to visit him, which was true. Sam knew it was when Dream felt most lonely, and so he always took pity on the man, grabbing yet another clock from the chest that he kept full of them, and taking it to the shell of the man that used to be his friend, hoping that this loneliness meant that he was savable, and somewhere in there he was still capable of feeling. That he was still human.

So as Sam prepared himself for his first perimeter check of the Prison, like he did every morning, he also started to mentally prepare for the inevitable interaction with his old friend. Today he was going to confront the man, make Dream tell him exactly what happened to Tommy in exile, and down in that bunker, to cause him to have a permanently haunted look in his once child-like gaze, to make him wake up screaming (Sam had heard one night on his way home after a late-night perimeter check) and not sleep for days afterwards (if the dark circles under his eyes were anything to go by). Because no boy looked and acted the way TommyInnit did without being completely traumatised.

Today was the day that Sam was going to find out why.

In the distance, a cloaked figure grew closer and closer. 

Sam paused his preparation as he noticed that they were making a beeline towards him, halting in the middle of strapping his Warden Weapons onto his body.

He realised, with much surprise, that it was Purpled, dressed in clothes that looked like he'd just stepped off of a battle field, black dyed leather armour, casual armour it seemed, and a deep purple travelling cloak that fluttered behind him slightly as he walked, his feet making no crunching sounds on the dewy grass as he walked despite the boots he wore - _impressive_ , Sam thought to himself as he watched the teenager approach, _if not slightly worrying_. 

Purpled came to a silent halt a few feet away from Sam, who was leaning one arm on the top of his netherite axe casually, a clear warning that he thought necessary while interacting with Purpled. 

He saw a pearly white slash of a smile from under the hood of Purpled's cloak when he spotted Sam's axe and his defensive stance, only causing Sam's senses to go on high alert as he repressed a shudder and instead focused on the handle of the blade that he could see over Purpled's shoulder. Everything about this teenager screamed predator. So vastly different to how broken Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo seemed from being around so much violence that it genuinely shocked Sam. Clearly the bloodshed on this server had had a completely different impact on Purpled.

"Sam." Purpled said in that monotone voice of his, removing his hood slowly so as not to startle the man standing before him. He studied him, noting how different Sam looked from the last time he had seen him, his pale human skin now more splotched with patches of green of various shades than he had been before, a different green and gold mask that only covered half of his face instead of all of it and revealed one eye and half his mouth. One eye that was now visible as being a golden honey-like colour, his wavy light brown hair slowly bleeding into dark green on one side. _Huh, more information to store away for later._

"Purpled." Sam greeted tensely, almost unable to hide his shock at the sight of Purpled's once young and perfect looking face. Somehow, since he'd last seen him, Purpled had gained a scar. A pale red one that slashed right down his neck, starting above his jawline, just below his ear, and marring his youthfulness with a jagged roughness that made Sam want to hurt whoever inflicted such pain upon someone so young. It was fairly new as well, he could tell from the colouring of it. A wound like that should have killed him, Sam realised, tearing his eyes away from the horrifying scar before the red that had crept into the edges of his vision could fully take over. 

Purpled could feel Sam staring at his scar, could see the horror in his eyes and could feel the barely suppressed rage and pity rippling off of the hybrid's skin. His fists clenched. He didn't want pity and he could fight his own battles, despite what injuries he gained from them. More importantly, he didn't need Sam to fight them for him. 

"Purple-"

"Piss off, I don't need your concern." Was all Purpled said curtly, turning away from Sam's worried eyes and starting to stride away. He had only come over to tell Sam about Tommy, because Sam seemed like the type of guy to care, but if he was going to be a prick and start worrying about him too, then Tommy could suffer in silence and Sam could go fuck himself. 

Sam didn't follow after the teen, his mind semi-clouded with worry as he watched Purpled retreat and pull his hood up again, and half wondering what he had wanted, while also realising that if he followed the teenager then he'd be behind on his schedule ... and he still needed to do a perimeter check. 

He sighed and turned away, resigning himself to the boring task that was inspecting the outside of the prison and finishing attaching his weapons to his back. 

He started trudging around the edge of the prison, carefully inspecting its dark walls and brushing his fingers over spots every so often. Sam had to admit, from this position, the walls of the prison looked endless, as if they just kept going upwards and upwards until they were swallowed by clouds. Probably another reason no one had tried to break in yet. 

Almost a quarter of the way around the prison, Sam found something worrying.

There was blood smeared on the walls. Scratches maybe as deep as a few millimetres were gauged in the brick, a dent slightly deeper that had clearly been made with a pickaxe in the center of them. Nobody was supposed to be strong enough to do that. It would take days for any normal person to make that dent with a maxed out netherite pickaxe, and who the hell was strong enough to gauge _literal gashes_ into the walls of an _obsidian_ prison with mining fatigue?

Sam was well and truly shaken as he brushed his fingers over the dent and the scratches that had been made by nails, or maybe claws from the look of them, and the blood that had dried around them that was almost invisible against the dark colouring of the obsidian. It had appeared overnight. Sam new that because he'd done a perimeter check last night before he left for the day.

 _This wasn't supposed to be possible_.

A cold wave of paralysing fear washed over him.

 _Somebody was trying to break Dream out_.

* * *

Dream sat with his back against the wall, staring at the clock opposite him. It was just after midday, and Sam was running late. 

Not only did Dream know this because Sam had a very strict schedule, he also knew this because when Sam had time changes, or wouldn't be here for a few days, he'd supply Dream with enough food to keep him alive in advance and tell him when he'd next be back, and not to attempt to escape because he'd put measures in place that would prevent him from doing so. 

And so something had happened that must be keeping Sam from being on time. What it was, Dream had no idea.

He sat there, within the prison of three obsidian walls and reinforced iron bars that separated him from the hundreds of layers of lava, and hummed to himself quietly as he tapped his foot, still watching the clock as it slowly ticked further into the afternoon.

The reinforced iron bars hadn't always been there. Sam had added them after Dream had continuously tried swimming in the lava, knowing he wouldn't escape but trying anyway, and gained hundreds of burns on his skin. Eventually, Sam had had enough of watching his friend hurt himself like that, and had one day entered Dream's cell with bars as well as a plate of potatoes, adding them in when the drugs he had slipped into the food had knocked Dream out. When Dream awoke, groggy and half conscious, Sam and the empty plate were gone and the lava was back, instead this time a few feet away behind bars - unreachable. 

Eventually, he heard pistons moving and the sound of the lava that surrounded his cell beginning to retract. He didn't move from his position on the floor as Sam entered his prison with a plate of potatoes (the usual) and a worried look on his face which he was clearly trying and failing to hide. Sam's hair was messier than usual, and his brow was slightly furrowed. His shoulders were tense as the lava fell behind him, the bridge disappearing back to the other side and the bars lifting. Sam stepped into the room, waited for the bars to fall again, and then waited for the second set of bars (the original ones that had been there before and only appeared when Sam brought him food and stopped him from making a run for it) to fall as well. He stepped into the room and dropped the plate next to Dream unceremoniously and then lent against the wall opposite him as both sets of bars rose again, trapping both men inside.

Dream raised an eyebrow, which of course Sam couldn't see because of the shadows hiding his face that the dark green hoodie that he wore now cast, his mask having been confiscated after he smashed it and and tried slit his own throat. Dream hadn't actually been going to do it, he just wanted to see the panicked look on Sam's face as he came whirling into the cell and stopped him, pinning him down and removing the sharp shards of his broken mask from his possession. It was nice to know that someone still cared, it made him feel satisfied, because if Sam cared, then that meant other people must care too, despite the upsetting lack of visitors.

He decided against saying anything, biting into a potato as he wondered why Sam was being stupid enough to let his guard down. It would be so easy to escape, Dream realised, spotting the axe and the sword strapped to Sam's back and the keys and buttons at his waist ... oh so very easy to escape. He only needed to overpower Sam, which usually Dream could do easily, with or without weapons. Even in his weak state Dream was sure he could have taken him. Except he saw that Sam's visible eye was black and glossed over and he was more creeper than not, as if he was lost in that dangerous blood-lust phase that he'd often slip into when they first met in the early days of the SMP and he got overwhelmed or angry.

It came from the creeper side of him, but instead of blowing up, Sam would slip into a phase of violence that Sapnap had started calling his "blood-lust" which was an appropriate name it turned out, when one day Sam completely lost control as the red hue slipped over his eyes as they turned black and his creeper half kicked in, not only providing him with advancing fighting abilities, but also turning his skin more creeper than human as he slaughtered a whole village of innocent people while his friends could do nothing but watch. Ponk had tried to stop him, had even gone as far as to run towards him and almost threw himself between the innocents and Sam's sword. Dream had saved Ponk's life that day, knowing Sam would be eaten alive by the guilt if he had killed him. Ponk would have died had Dream not saved him by throwing himself at him and knocking him to the ground before he could reach Sam, ignoring how the shorter man screamed and struggled under him as he tried to reach his friend, but Dream refused to budge because when Sam was in blood-lust he couldn't tell who was friend or foe as that red hue clouded his irises and turned his world to nothing but pain and violence. When Sam was in that state of mind, even Dream couldn't beat him in a fight or restrain him, and killing Ponk while he was in that state would have destroyed the hybrid. The man Dream used to be couldn't let that happen.

Which is why, when Dream noticed Sam's tense shoulders and unfocused black eye, he grew wary and instead of attempting to escape, became on high alert instead, and for the first time in a long time, felt defenseless against a stronger enemy.

The two men sat in the cell in silence as Dream ate. Sam had moved to sit on the tiny, thin bed that was bolted to the floor while Dream still hadn't moved from his spot on the floor opposite the clock, watching it tick as he finished his meal.

"What did you do to Tommy, Dream?" Sam suddenly asked, his head snapping up from where it had been staring at the floor for the past hour.

Dream didn't outwardly react to the question. He had finished his food long ago, but hadn't said anything for fear of triggering Sam. He didn't feel like losing his life today. He tilted his head slightly, the shadows shifting to reveal his mouth and burnt jaw as he studied Sam, noting how his eyes and skin had returned to normal.

So Dream felt a lot more confident as he smirked, knowing that Sam could see it despite the shadows covering his face, and opted to stay silent.

Sam's jaw ticked as he clenched it in annoyance after it became clear that Dream wasn't going to give an answer, and Dream smirked again, his lips twitching in amusement, feeling pleased that he had pissed his jailer off yet again.

"Tell me Dream or I'm not coming back for at least three days, no matter how many times you burn the clock or throw yourself in that lava." Sam threatened.

To his surprise, Dream felt his stomach clench at that, and he realised how dependent he'd become on Sam's daily visits to keep him sane. 

But still he said nothing, deciding against speaking and instead just leaning his head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling and counting the flecks of different colours in the obsidian as Sam studied him.

"Fine." Sam eventually said, when Dream refused to break his silence. "Then I'll be back in three days."

He stood, his long legs crossing the floor in no time, bars coming up behind him to stop Dream from crossing the bridge with him. 

As the lava retracted, Sam turned to him, clearly giving him one last chance to give an answer.

Still Dream stayed silent, the only sign that he heard Sam leaving was the way his head was now tilted in Sam's direction, clearly watching him through the bars from beneath the shadows of his hood.

The two old friends stared at each other, one's face cloaked in shadows and the other's bathed in orange light. One caged in an obsidian prison and the other the one his captor. 

Sam turned away and stepped onto the bridge and Dream watched his back until it was gone, swallowed by the lava, leaving him to his thoughts and the obsidian walls of his cell.

* * *

Tubbo awoke much later than usual. He hadn't slept well last night, despite being exhausted from a long day of working on Project Dream Catcher with Jack, and discussing plans for Snowchester with Foolish when Jack vanished.

His dreams had been plagued with Tommy's screams of despair as Dream had dragged Tommy out of Tubbo's arms, his manic laughter echoing around the impossibly tall walls of the inescapable bunker. In the dream, it was Tommy instead of Tubbo that Dream had threatened to kill. And every time Tommy died, he died because Tubbo never got to him in time. He died because Tubbo let Dream pull him out of his arms as Tommy screamed at him to _run_ , to _get away_ , and no one came to save them as Dream stabbed Tommy much like Phil had stabbed Wilbur, the enchanted blade of _Nightmare_ (an appropriate name in this situation) arcing through Tommy's chest as Dream embraced him, eyes locking with Tubbo's through his pale mask as he twisted the blade slowly, making Tommy scream in agony before he went limp in his arms as the last of his life drained from his eyes. Every time, Tubbo would collapse to the floor and scream, his face burning as tears fell from his eyes, a music disc playing in the background - taunting him - and hand clutching the compass labelled _Your Tommy_ as the needle stopped pointing towards Dream and Tommy, and simply hung limp ... _broken_. Somehow, he would know that Dream was smiling beneath his mask as he dropped Tommy's corpse on the floor and knelt down before him and forced Tubbo to look at him in his green eyes with a gentle, almost caring, blood covered hand - _Tommy's blood_ \- under his chin, whispering "That hurt me more than it hurt you, Tubbo. I didn't want to do it. It was your fault Tubbo." And then Tubbo woke up, usually screaming with tears sliding down his cheeks and gasping for air. 

It was a reoccurring dream that he had been having ever since the night when Dream had been imprisoned and Tommy and Tubbo had been saved by the other members of the SMP. Sometimes he made it to the end of the dream, where Dream killed Tommy and then told him it was his fault as Tubbo sobbed on the floor, other times he only made it to the part where Tommy was ripped from his arms before he awoke, sweating and gasping for breath, often crying as well. 

Today he had made it to the part where Tommy was stabbed, collapsing to the floor and then waking with a loud, ear-shattering scream as Dream dumped Tommy's body on the floor, the sickening thud echoing around the bunker as Tubbo sobbed.

His throat was raw from screaming, his face burnt from the tears he had cried in his sleep, his hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and his sheets were on the floor from his struggling from trying and failing to reach Tommy.

Tubbo sat in his bed, staring blankly at his wall as he tried to convince himself that it wasn't real. _It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real_...

The door to his house suddenly burst open, revealing Ranboo with wide panicked eyes and Jack behind him, looking scared as they scanned his house for danger.

Ranboo was the first to spot him in bed and his face immediately relaxed slightly when he realised that there was no physical threat, although he retained the worried expression and concerned eyes. Jack then spotted him and immediately looked awkward and uncomfortable after taking in Tubbo's distressed state. 

Ranboo watched how his friend was staring blankly at the wall, breathing heavily and whispering to himself, seemingly unaware of the pair stood in the doorway. He turned to Jack and saw how uncomfortable the man looked. 

"It's okay, I'll talk to Tubbo, you go tell Foolish it's okay and it was just a nightmare, he doesn't need to get Puffy." Ranboo whispered, leaning down slightly so Jack could hear him. 

Jack nodded, eyes still wide and focused on Tubbo, backing away as Ranboo ducked through the doorway and closed the spruce doors behind him as quietly as possible before slowly approaching Tubbo so as not to startle the panicked boy. 

Ranboo sat down next to Tubbo's bed, back leaning against the wall and long legs criss-crossed under him like a pretzel. Because of his height, that brought his head to about shoulder level with Tubbo's shoulder, despite Tubbo being sat on the bed.

Tubbo was now aware of his tall friend's presence next to his bed, but still hadn't moved or stopped whispering to himself.

"It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real..." He muttered over and over again.

Ranboo wasn't sure what to do. He had come over this morning meaning to ask Tubbo if he wanted to go around the SMP gaining experience points with him, so he could fix his pickaxe and Tubbo could fix... whatever he had most recently broken. He was surprised when he arrived and Foolish informed him that Tubbo was still sleeping, only for a scream filled with so much fear and pain that it made his heart bleed to shatter the peacefulness of the snowy, seaside village seconds later, causing Foolish to jump in shock and Ranboo to sprint to where it had come from - Tubbo's cabin. He had reached the door first, Jack hot on his heels despite Ranboo's long legs and having arrived from wherever he'd been at the same time as Ranboo. 

"Tubbo." He whispered softly, deciding that he should move onto Tubbo's bed, where he could see his friend's face. "Tubbo it's okay. It wasn't real. I'm real, you're real. You're in Snowchester, you're safe. It's alright, I'm here." 

Tubbo let out a shuddering breath as the tremors of Ranboo's gentle, deep voice surrounded him like a comforting blanket as he sat down next to him on his bed, still giving him enough space to breath. 

"It's okay. I'm real, you're real. Snowchester. I'm safe." Tubbo repeated Ranboo's words almost robotically.

"You're safe." Ranboo repeated again, watching as Tubbo relaxed slightly. "I won't let anyone hurt you. You're _safe_ Tubbo."

"I'm safe." Tubbo repeated again, letting out another shuddering breath and closing his eyes. Tommy's terrified face as he was pulled away from him flashed in the darkness causing his eyes to snap open again. "It was so real Ranboo..." He gasped.

Ranboo felt his heart break even more as he saw the haunted look in Tubbo's eyes, "I know Tubbo, trust me I know." There was something in his voice that made Tubbo think that somehow Ranboo really _did_ know. "But I promise it's not Tubbo. I promise."

"Okay." Tubbo eventually whispered quietly, unable to get the image of Dream twisting his blade through Tommy's chest out of his head.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ranboo asked quietly.

Tubbo shook his head, staring at his legs and not wanting to make eye contact out of embarrassment of being seen in his post-nightmare state.

"That's alright." Ranboo said, knowing Tubbo was now feeling embarrassed. "I can go if you want?"

To his surprise, Tubbo shook his head again, indicating that he wanted Ranboo to stay. 

"I can stay?" Ranboo said slightly questioningly.

Tubbo nodded his head.

"Okay." Ranboo breathed out quietly.

For a few moments, they sat there in silence. Tubbo needing comfort and being too embarrassed to ask for it, and Ranboo unsure of what Tubbo needed.

Eventually, Tubbo shuffled slightly closer to Ranboo and the half-enderman finally got the hint, opening his arms and allowing Tubbo to collapse into his chest as sobs finally broke free.

Ranboo felt his own eyes start to tear up as he held his smaller friend close to him as Tubbo buried his face in Ranboo's chest, his freshly bandaged hands softly rubbing circles on Tubbo's back comfortingly and his strong arms holding him tightly.

The pair stayed like that for a long time, two broken kids, the products of war and violence, trying to stay afloat in the troubled waters of the aftermath of war. 

* * *

The sun was starting to hang lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the grass as two figures, one tall and one much shorter, walked slowly along the prime path.

It was now late afternoon, and Ranboo and Tubbo were wandering around the mainland SMP halfheartedly gaining xp points to further solidify Ranboo's now fixed pickaxe, just to be safe.

After Tubbo's nightmare earlier on in the day, which he still hadn't opened up about (and Ranboo hadn't pushed him), Ranboo had waited outside while Tubbo washed and dressed, and then the pair had decided to travel to the spider spawner. 

They travelled there using Tubbo's half finished bridge, that he claimed would make you travel hundreds of metres in mere seconds when it was finished, which Ranboo didn't doubt knowing how clever Tubbo was, daring each other to leap between the stone arches that were above it, and laughing and joking, the darkness that both of them began their days with almost completely forgotten. They had then spent hours at the spider spawner, saying hi to the few SMP members that passed through (Fundy, Eret and Hannah briefly stopping to say hello, and Puffy stopping to have a full conversation with them, asking them how they were) and falling silent when BadBoyHalo and Antfrost dropped down the hole and landed in the water elegantly, talking intently with their heads close together and not even noticing the two teenagers sat silently in the shadows as the amount of spiders became greater and greater until the mysterious pair moved on down the passageway, leaving Tubbo and Ranboo unsettled as they noticed the change in Bad's outfit and the pink colouring of Ant's eyes. 

The two teens had then decided that now that Ranboo's pickaxe was fixed, they might as well leave, as that interaction with Ant and Bad had been unnerving, even if the pair hadn't noticed them.

Tubbo had noticed the new bandages on Ranboo's hands as they walked, and how his tall friend flinched in pain every time he had to use them for doing anything, and had asked what happened in a concerned voice. Ranboo had lied, had looked Tubbo right in his worried eyes and told him that he had been mining and lost track of time, that he wasn't paying attention and pushed himself too hard, making his hands bleed from mining for too long. The guilt after Tubbo nodded, believing him and moving on, almost too much for the half-enderman, even though he wasn't fully sure whether he had lied or not.

The two were laughing together about a joke Ranboo had just made when Tubbo suddenly fell silent, all signs of laughter and joy falling from his face. 

Ranboo followed Tubbo's line of sight, and immediately understood his silence.

Just off the side of the path ahead of them, silhouetted by the setting sun, was TommyInnit. His hair was still too long, Ranboo realised, surprised that he still hadn't cut it since before his exile and he had instead opted to keep it long, the small plaits in his hair ruffling in the wind. He was wearing Wilbur's coat, which made Tubbo's stomach clench as his mind immediately flashed back to the image of Tommy being stabbed by Dream, and he was also wearing a dark green bandanna around his throat ... Tubbo's bandanna. The burnt skin of his left hand was clearly visible from where Ranboo and Tubbo stood, watching as Tommy lifted it to push his hair out of his face as he bent over something on his lap, the melted flesh a horrible reminder of his time in exile that no one knew about, the things that had happened to him behind closed doors. 

Tommy hadn't spotted them yet, as he was sat on a bench, on their bench, listening to a disc and sharpening what looked like a netherite axe, although it was much darker than netherite usually looked, but maybe that was just the dying sunlight. He looked surprisingly weak and helpless without all his Tommy bravado, even though he was sharpening a weapon, Tubbo thought as he watched his once best friend sit there calmly, a state of mind that was extremely out of character for TommyInnit.

A stick snapped, causing Tommy to snap his head towards Tubbo and Ranboo, fingers clutching the handle of the axe defensively. 

His gaze darkened when he saw them, although he said nothing and his defensive grip on his axe loosened, clearly not feeling threatened by their presence.

Tubbo and Tommy made eye contact, neither of them saying a word as they both stared at each other, words and memories floating in the air between them as it went taught with tension. 

Tommy noticed that Tubbo had the start of dark circles under his eyes, like he wasn't sleeping properly. He also noticed that Tubbo wasn't wearing his red bandanna, the one that Tommy had given him before the first war, when they had promised to always wear them no matter what. It wasn't on his wrist. _He wasn't wearing it_. 

Tubbo saw the way the younger boy's exhausted looking eyes flickered down to his bare wrist and filled with something like grief before his eyes returned to Tubbo's face. He shifted awkwardly and hid his bare wrist behind his back, unable to stomach the look of poorly hidden hurt on Tommy's face.

The tension between the two was palpable, and Ranboo cleared his throat quietly and uncomfortably, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment. Tommy's eyes then flicked to him, filled with some unreadable emotion as they flicked back to Tubbo.

The blond haired boy stood from the bench, his dark coloured axe in his hand yet not in a threatening way as he gathered the music disc from the jukebox, the calming notes stopping and leaving an uncomfortable silence. 

"Tubbo." Tommy said quietly as he turned to look at the pair. "Ranboo." He nodded his head in greeting.

When Tubbo didn't respond, Ranboo awkwardly waved a hand and waved, "Hi."

Tommy and Tubbo hadn't spoken to each other since they defeated Dream, and feelings of resentment and anger had clearly grown over the mistakes both of them had made, leading to both boys to feel hurt and neither of them being able to look at each other without remembering those mistakes.

Ranboo could feel all that and more in the air between Tubbo and Tommy. He had no idea what to do to fix their friendship. Neither could be truly happy without the other, he knew that much from the time he had spent with each of them while Tommy was in exile ... when he had grown closer to both of them, though mainly Tubbo as Tommy was hard to befriend. No matter how much they might deny it, everyone knew the two were platonic soulmates, that without each other they wouldn't be able to function, the two were practically family. They were pretty much brothers.

Eventually, Tommy broke the silence by walking past them and towards his dirt house, axe clutched in burnt hand and trench coat floating out behind him slightly in the wind, the dark brown colour of it clashing against his red and white shirt - the same clothing he had worn in exile, Ranboo noticed, although Tubbo didn't, mainly because he hadn't visited Tommy while he was in exile, something that neither of the three teenagers had forgotten. Tubbo flinched violently at how much Tommy reminded him of Wilbur in that moment. The coat, the worn soldier like way that Tommy walked, the tired almost broken look in his eyes - it's how Wilbur looked before he blew up L'Manburg, and that realisation terrified Tubbo.

The oak doors of Tommy's home swung shut with a bang, leaving a loud silence between Tubbo and Ranboo.

Up on top of the hill a few feet away, Purpled had been watching the interaction with interest, noting how Tubbo had flinched multiple times throughout the interaction and how he had shuffled slightly closer to Ranboo when Tommy had stood - as if he had thought the younger boy would hurt him; how awkward and worried Ranboo had looked, his eyes flicking frantically between the two boys and even letting out a distressed enderman noise at one point, which no one noticed apart from Purpled, who also noticed the new bandages wrapped around his hands and wrists; and how hurt Tommy looked as he turned his back on the pair, striding towards his house with a disc in one hand and an axe in the other.

What Purpled knew no one else noticed, was that the axe Tommy was carrying wasn't made out of netherite like Tubbo and Ranboo had probably assumed. It was made out of obsidian, the dark black colour an obvious give away as it glinted dangerously in the golden light.

 _Interesting_ , Purpled thought to himself as he watched Tubbo and Ranboo walk away, the taller of the two forcing Tubbo to take his blazer when the smaller boy shivered, the wind making him cold through the thin cotton material of his roughly dyed green shirt. From his vantage point, he had heard as well as witnessed the entire interaction, so it didn't surprise him when he saw the oak doors of Tommy's home crack open and the boy inside slip out with his roughly crafted obsidian weapon strapped to his back, and watch the two retreating figures until they were out of sight, a look of longing and hurt and jealousy in his eyes. 

_An obsidian weapon,_ Purpled thought to himself, almost not believing it despite seeing the thing with his very own eyes.

Obsidian weapons were something of the past, myths that no one believed. The weapons were impossible to make - and trust me, many people had tried and failed, never able to replicate the ones that great warriors of the past had theoretically carried into battle, the stories of their legendary battles and the skilled warriors who wielded them reduced to nothing but bedtime stories and legends. Obsidian weapons were something that only the people who fought with them knew how to make, the knowledge seemingly born and dying with them hundreds of thousands of years ago in the very earliest wars of this server between the humans and the rest of the creatures that inhabited the land, before the time of Dream and his friends. The weapons themselves mysteriously vanishing alongside their fallen soldiers in battle. They were rumoured to be unbreakable and completely loyal to their warriors, no one else able to wield the blades with as much grace as the people who crafted them. Rumoured to be demon and god slayers, the only weapons that the two mighty beings were ever afraid of...

But all of the myths and legends surrounding obsidian weapons were just that ... myths and bedtime stories that parents told their kids before tucking them into bed and singing them to sleep.

Because no one had ever seen one, and there was no proof of them ever having existed...

Up until Purpled spotted that crudely crafted, rough obsidian axe in Tommy's hand, clearly a work in progress and nowhere near finished but still obviously made out of obsidian.

So the real question was, how an earth had _TommyInnit_ of all people come to own one?

* * *

Another chapter! Hopefully there aren't too many typos and it isn't too long because I spent ages reading it over and subtracting and adding bits in to make it read better...


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: manipulation, brief descriptions of blood and violence

Tommy sat watching the sun rise over the Dream SMP after yet another sleepless night, blond hair ruffling in the cold early morning breeze.

It probably needed cutting, he thought to himself as he brushed the long hairs out of his face for what felt like the one hundredth time in the past few minutes. But Tommy also didn't want to cut it, despite how annoying it was. He couldn't bring himself to chop off his long, golden locks of hair. Maybe it was because every time he stood in front of the cracked, dirty mirror in his house, a rusty blade clutched in his shaking hand as he stood there staring at his distorted reflection, he was reminded of the old TommyInnit. The Tommy that he'd been in Pogtopia, the Tommy that he'd been when exiled by Tubbo ... yet somehow he could never bring himself to lift his hand higher to slice through his hair, the energy and anger leaking out of him before he could do it. It sounded stupid, and Tommy knew it, because at the end of the day it was just hair. But for some reason, to Tommy it felt like so much more than that. So he would stand there, staring at himself until he eventually dropped the blade, the hand that had been clutching it tightly now permanently scarred with thin jagged white lines across his palm from where he would cut himself from holding the blade too tightly. 

He felt lost, as if he were drowning, adrift at sea with no land in sight. Tommy felt like he din't have a point anymore. Now the fight was over, everything was supposed to be good again, like it was before all the wars started, when it was just him and Tubbo messing around like the careless kids they once were, when he had no scars on his body, and no demons haunting his brain. Tommy missed those times. The times before Wilbur and L'Manburg... before the discs were more than just music discs, when Dream was still just Dream, and not the tyrant of a man he now was. 

Tommy didn't know why all these feelings had suddenly surfaced, especially after he'd been so good at hiding from them for so long, letting them simmer underneath his skin without acknowledging them. Maybe it was because he'd seen Tubbo yesterday for the first time since they beat Dream. 

_Tubbo..._

He'd looked so different from the last time Tommy saw him, like a completely new person. Tommy hated it.

They had been reunited for almost a week before they fought Dream, during which they fought futility for L'Manburg against the remaining members of his own family and the man that he still cared about (no matter how much he hated himself for it), and after that they hadn't had much chance to catch up, immediately moving onto their battle plan for fighting Dream, which had turned out to be useless in the end anyway. So Tommy and Tubbo hadn't had time to talk out their issues. He hadn't had the time to scream at his once best friend for the pain that he had unknowingly imposed on him in the month that Tommy spent exiled... resentment and anger and sadness and all other sorts of emotions that Tommy wasn't used to feeling at the same time had steadily grown, until he could barely look at the boy he used to spend all his time with without wanting to cry. And to top it all off? Tubbo wasn't wearing his bandanna anymore.

No, Tubbo wasn't the same person anymore. Neither was Tommy. And their unbreakable friendship was in tatters, apparently not so unbreakable after all. The last thread snapping with a loud twanging sound that echoed through his porcelain heart when Tommy had spotted Tubbo, bandanna-less and standing there with Ranboo, staring at him in disgust, or like he was something that you'd find on the bottom of your shoe. It made hurt bubble in Tommy's stomach, hurt that he ignored and convinced himself was anger. 

Tommy sighed and stood up, shimmying his shoulders as the skin between his shoulder blades started tingling and itching yet again, an annoying sensation that he'd been suffering with recently, one that wouldn't go away no matter what he did to make the horrible feeling subside. He jumped down from the top of his house, landing funnily on his right ankle and tumbling the the floor as it gave out underneath him, wincing when it twinged painfully, an injury he'd sustained in exile that hadn't fully healed and had probably left him with one ankle that was weaker than the other for the rest of his life. 

"That looked like it hurt." A calm male voice stated, concern evident in their voice.

Tommy groaned slightly, his long legs splayed in an ungainly way and his hand on his sore ankle as he squinted up at the outline, trying to make out who the relatively tall, armoured person was.

It sounded like Awesamdude?

Sam stepped closer to the fallen teenager, offering a hand to help him up and coming fully into view as the rising sun washed over the pair. Tommy being Tommy, stubbornly ignored the offer of help and got up by himself (which made Sam smile, as he had expected it), almost falling over again only to be saved by Sam catching his elbow and gripping it tightly. When Sam was sure Tommy's ankle wasn't going to buckle under the weight of the gangly teenager again, he let Tommy yank his arm out of his grip and cross them, huffing in annoyance and embarrassment at Sam's help.

"It didn't hurt and I was fine, didn't need your help." Tommy muttered stubbornly.

"Mhm." Sam hummed, suppressing a smile at the attitude rolling off the moody teenager, although he was concerned about Tommy's ankle being so weak.

Tommy huffed at the amusement that he heard in the man's voice, but for once was too tired to attempt to react like his old self would have, just opting to stay silent instead of being loud and insulting.

After a few seconds of silence, Sam had an idea. 

"I'm just on my way to the prison, want to come with me?" He asked, watching Tommy's reaction carefully.

As he expected, Tommy's immediate reaction was fear, followed by something that looked like anger and upset flashing through his wide blue eyes as they snapped to Sam's. His body language became defensive as his face clammed up, all emotions disappearing as the teenager stared at him, clearly putting on his poker face.

_Interesting._

"You can walk with me while I do the perimeter check if you like?" Sam offered, knowing he shouldn't really be offering but desperate for anyway to get closer to the defensive boy.

Tommy was eyeing him warily, a distrustful look in his eyes, like Sam was trying to trick him.

"Uh... and Dre-Dream? If I come I don't need to see him, right?" Tommy eventually asked, considering the hybrid's offer. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. He hoped Sam hadn't heard the apprehension in his voice, and how he stumbled over Dream's name as he fought to keep his emotions hidden while his mind raced, running over all the possible ways this could end in him being in danger in anyway. It was something that was automatic to him now. 

"No, you don't need to see Dream." Sam said softly, almost pityingly, studying Tommy's face carefully for a reaction, although Tommy gave him none. "He's actually been misbehaving recently, so his punishment is complete isolation for a few days. I'll be checking on him remotely rather than face to face."

Without meaning to, Sam had accidentally triggered Tommy.

At first, he showed no outward signs that Sam's words had had any effect on him, despite the way him mind faltered in it's worrying about the outcomes of visiting the prison with Sam, and flashed back to exile instead...

_"That was stupid and unnecessary Tommy." Dream hissed, wiping away some of the blood that trickled down his chin with the back of his hand, the crack in his mask showing Tommy that the wild hit he had flung out desperately had made contact, along with the burning sensation in his right hand. He was clutching the diamond axe that he had just found Tommy trying to hide from him in his left hand, his knuckles white as he clutched the handle tightly, and fisting Tommy's shirt in his other hand, forcing Tommy to look him in the eyes._

_Dream's grip on the front of Tommy's grubby red and white T-shirt loosened and he let Tommy fall to the dirt ground with a loud thump, stepping away from the cowering boy._

_Tommy laid still, fear gripping him as he regretted the panic that had made him flail out, hitting Dream and only angering him further._

_After a few minutes of silence that was only broken by the sounds of the waves lapping at the sandy shore a few metres away, Dream crouched down next to Tommy, who was still lying still, curled in a protective ball. Dream had never hit him, Tommy realised, he just pushed and shoved a bit, Tommy was the one who had hit Dream..._

_Dream gently helped Tommy sit up, pulling him into his chest caringly, embracing the boy in an almost parent-like way, a loving sort of gesture that Tommy wasn't familiar with. He rubbed his hand up and down the boy's back, letting Tommy rest his head on his chest as he spoke softly, "You shouldn't hide things from me Tommy. I'm your friend. Friends don't hide things from each other."_

_Somewhere, deep inside, Tommy knew that Dream was lying, that he must be, because Tommy's friends had kept many secrets, hadn't told Tommy many things. But had they really been his friends? Dream said they weren't. He said that the lack of visitors to Logstedshire just proved that they didn't care. Even Ranboo had eventually stopped coming to see him, leaving Dream as his only friend. But Dream said that Tommy only needed him anyway, that Tommy didn't need anyone else when Dream was his friend. And Tommy was starting to believe him..._

_"I'm sorry Dream." Tommy rasped, his head resting on Dream's chest as the man took Tommy's bandaged wrapped hands in one of his own, still holding him in that caring way._

_"Sorry isn't good enough Tommy." Dream smiled almost pityingly, "I told you to stop hiding things from me."_

_Tommy tensed and his eyes went wide as Dream suddenly stood, striding away from their spot on the grass and towards the stack of the photos that he had found at the same time as finding Tommy trying to hide the axe._

_"D-Dream?" Tommy gasped, staggering to his feet despite the pain he felt in his ankle and wrist from landing funnily when he fell._

_Dream gathered up the photos and adjusted his grip on the axe, changing direction and heading towards the nether portal, ignoring Tommy altogether._

_"D-Dream stop! What are you doing?! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Dream. Please Dream. Please!" Tommy begged, grabbing onto Dream's sleeve just as he disappeared through the portal, taking Tommy with him._

_Dream spun to face him once they were both through the portal, a manic look in his eyes that was made a hundred times more terrifying by the almost endless looking pool of lava that was reflected in them. Orange flames reflected against the whiteness of Dream's mask, making him look like some sort of demon, or terrifying god. And everyone knows that angering gods is a bad idea._

_"You don't need these anyway Tommy. Tubbo was the one who exiled you, not me. Wilbur was the one who blew up L'manburg. Technoblade was the one who placed those withers. Your own brothers betrayed you. Tubbo betrayed you. I'm not the bad guy here." Dream said forcefully, holding the pictures out over the lava with two fingers the only things stopping them from falling._

_Tommy fell to his knees and begged then, eyes glued to the last photo he had of Tubbo, Wilbur, Techno and himself. He couldn't lose that photo. He didn't have another one._

_"Please..." Tommy breathed._

_Dream smiled as he watched Tommy beg._

_"Please Dream. Please. I'm begging you!" Tommy gasped, his voice rising desperately towards the end of the sentence._

_His eyes were glued to the photo, eyes devouring it as if it were the last time he'd ever see it. Wilbur was taking the photo, beanie on and smiling wide. Tommy and Tubbo were forcing Techno into the frame, Tommy grinning widely and arm slung around Techno's broad shoulders, braces exposed and clearly in the middle of laughing,Tubbo smiling wide while also trying to do a peace sign for the camera, even Techno was begrudgingly smiling slightly as he let his younger brother and Tubbo push him into the frame, scrunching him between them as the camera flashed, capturing the moment in ink._

_Dream opened his hand, letting the pictures fall. "Oops."_

_Tommy screamed, scrabbling towards the edge of the cliff, fingers scraping at the netherrack as he wildly swiped for the photo of the four of them, his fingers only inches away as it slipped just beyond reach. Dream grabbed him by the back of his shirt, preventing him from jumping after the photos._

_He made Tommy watch as the photos fell into the lava, instantly burning and disappearing into nothing but ash._

_Tommy didn't cry as Dream forcefully dragged him back through the portal, even though he felt completely crushed._

_If only he hadn't hidden things from Dream._

_Because it was his fault, and he had angered Dream._

_It was his own fault._

_Dream dropped Tommy on the floor once again, and once again Tommy stayed completely still, although this time more because the last of his fighting spirit had been stamped out of him than him being afraid of Dream._

_Suddenly, Tommy felt a burning anger flood his veins. Who the hell did Dream think he was? He stood up and turned to look at Dream, who was leaning against the nether portal casually, his green cloak swirling around him as the portal particles danced around him. He looked intimidating, terrifying even. Yet Tommy didn't notice as he stormed up to him and shoved him angrily._

_"You SON OF A BITCH!" Tommy yelled, shoving Dream again._

_Dream let him shove him, stumbling backwards slightly as Tommy started weakly pummeling his chest in broken rage, too weak from exile to hurt Dream._

_After a few minuted of Tommy hitting him with no sign of him stopping soon, Dream moved. His arms shot out, wrapping around Tommy before he could react and pulling him close, grabbing his fists with his other hand so he couldn't hit him. Tommy screamed, struggling like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum._

_"Stop it Tommy." Dream hissed into the teenager's ear. "You're embarrassing yourself. Stop it."_

_Tommy listened, the last of his fight draining out of his body and going limp, too tired to fight back._

_Dream smiled as he felt Tommy stop fighting, satisfied that he had finally broken him, got him completely under control._

_"Good." Dream smirked, letting go of Tommy, who stumbled slightly at the unexpected, sudden movement and then righted himself._

_"Dre-" Tommy's voice was cut off as his head snapped to the side as Dream's palm made contact with it, striking Tommy for the first time._

_Tommy gasped, his eyes stinging and his cheek already flaring red as he slowly turned his head back towards Dream. Dream's rings had scratched his face, blood starting to bubble through the cuts. His teeth had gone through his lip, so he was bleeding down his chin as he stared at the cloaked man, scared and hurt._

_Something in Dream's eyes softened at the sight of Tommy's fear, at the sight of his watery eyes._

_"I'm sorry Tommy. I didn't want to do that, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry." He lifted a hand and brushed it over Tommy's red cheek, the sudden movement making Tommy jump and his eyes widen more. He brushed his thumb over one of the cuts he had made, smearing the blood and making Tommy flinch in pain._

_"I'm not coming back Tommy, if you can't trust me, then we clearly can't be friends." Dream whispered, pulling his hand away from the teenager and turning away, striding towards the nether portal._

_He grinned when he heard Tommy gasp and scramble towards him, grasping the back of his cloak._

_"Please, Dream, please! I'm so sorry, so so sorry. Please don't leave me." Tommy rambled, unable to handle the idea of being permanently isolated with no one to talk to. He'd go mad. "Please..." His voice cracked, trailing off as a tear fell down his cheek. The first tear he'd cried in front of anyone in years._

_Dream wiped the amusement off his face as he turned, making sure to replace it with an expression of hurt and disappointment, letting that "hurt" and "disappointment" leak into his voice._

_"I won't leave you Tommy," Dream said, watching as Tommy's body sagged in relief. "But I'm not coming back until I feel I can trust you again. You've upset me Tommy, betrayed me. I thought we were friends."_

_Tommy's voice broke, "We are! We are friends Dream! I swear it, I swear!"_

_Dream stepped through the portal, "Goodbye Tommy."_

_He hadn't returned for five days._

Tommy blinked, becoming aware of Sam stood in front of him, waving his hand in front of his face and trying to get his attention.

"Tommy?" He was saying his name repeatedly, a concerned expression on his face as he waved his hand in front of the teenager's blank eyes. "Tommy?"

"I'm fine." Tommy muttered gruffly, half of him still stuck back in his memory, the other half focusing on appearing normal so Sam didn't ask questions. The tingling sensation between his shoulder blades had started up again.

"You don't look fine." Sam pushed. "What was that?"

"Nothing. Piss off." Tommy snapped. 

Sam raised his hands in the air in surrender, "Okay, okay. I'll just be on my way then..."

He started slowly walking away, Tommy watching him leave as an idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Wait, Sam!" Tommy called after him, jogging to catch up to him.

Sam stopped and turned. "Hm?"

Tommy rubbed the back of his neck and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "So, um... you're good at building right?"

Sam wondered where this was going. "I'd say so, yes."

Tommy nodded. "Okay, so, I had this idea a few days ago, but I never thought I'd actually do it because in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly the best builder..." Sam smiled slightly.

"Mhm." Sam made an encouraging noise and Tommy relaxed slightly, sounding less tense and more excited.

"So yeah, my idea was to build like an apartment complex or a hotel that people can stay in. After everything that happened with L'Manburg, a few people were left without places to stay for a while and I thought if anything like that were to happen again to an area of the SMP, people could stay at the hotel until they found another place to stay or something." Tommy shuffled his feet awkwardly, his face dropping slightly, "And I don't really have much else to do, now that everyone has moved on and started declaring independence again and all that shit, like Tubbo and Snowchester, I mean something bad is bound to happen soon, it always does... I want to be prepared for that I guess."

Sam stared at the boy, wondering when he started to mature, although he supposed that was a stupid question considering the wars he'd been through. Although he'd always seemed to be the child that no one listened to during those...

"And you want my help building it?" Sam asked.

"Uh... yeah, I guess. It's fine if you don't want to, or if you're busy with the prison... it was just an idea." Tommy muttered awkwardly, staring at the floor. 

"I'd love to, it sounds like a great idea!" Sam grinned, smiling even wider when Tommy looked up, his lips slightly curved in a surprised smile. 

"Really?" Tommy asked, sounding genuinely surprised, like people didn't agree with his ideas very often.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. Do you have any idea where you'd want to build it yet?" Sam asked, starting walking again.

Tommy followed without realising as he answered, "Well, I was sort of thinking in that big empty bit of land near Skeppy and Bad's place." He pointed to it as they walked.

Sam studied it, looking at the hilly land and humming to himself in thought, "Yeah, we'd need to flatten it out and clean the area up first."

Tommy nodded, showing that he was listening as Sam assessed the area. The itching and tingling on his back becoming more and more prominent as he realised they were getting closer and closer to the prison and his apprehension started to grow. 

Sam was talking about possible plans for the hotel now, but Tommy couldn't listen anymore, the sensation between his shoulder blades becoming too strong to hide anymore, the white noise of Sam's voice being drowned out by his internal pain.

"-have you thought about-"

Tommy coughed loudly, getting Sam's attention immediately. "I, uh, I- um, I have to go Sam, thanks, um... I'll talk to you soon!" Tommy gasped breathlessly, his body trembling slightly as pain started to roll down his spine in waves. 

He dashed away, back towards his house, leaving Sam stood on the path, watching him leave with a frown. 

As soon as Tommy was out of sight, Sam's frown deepened and he rubbed his eyes, wondering if he should sleep more because he must be seeing things.

Because it wasn't possible for what he had seen to actually be there, because for a moment, when the sun hit Tommy just right, silhouetting his body, it almost looked like there were phantom wings protruding from his back.

* * *

Meanwhile, miles away, in the middle of a small clearing in a dark, spruce forest, Niki and Jack had just finished planning. 

"Same time, same place tomorrow?" Jack asked Niki, handing her back her sword from where they had put their weapons down.

Niki nodded, her soft gentle voice echoing around the small clearing, "Mhm. Bye Jack."

"Bye Niki." Jack called in his loud voice, before pearling away and leaving her behind. 

Niki let out a deep breath, sheathing her diamond sword and letting it hang at her waist, her armour glinting slightly as the sun that managed to trickle through the branches above hit it. She adjusted the beanie hat that sat on her pink hair, her heart aching as she remembered who it belonged to and why it was the only thing she had left of him. 

Tommy had taken his trench coat, leaving Niki with a hat and a broken heart as the only thing to remember her best friend by, her soulmate. Wilbur had been the Tommy to her Tubbo, and now he was gone. He was gone and he was never coming back.

So Niki had let the darkness that came with the pain of losing your soulmate consume her, becoming something the she had vowed never to be.

Someone had to pay for the pain Niki felt.

Someone had to pay for Wilbur's death.

Someone could have done something to stop Wilbur on that fateful day, and they hadn't. They hadn't because they hadn't been watching him despite knowing of his plans, too wrapped up in their own perfect little world to realise he was gone. That someone was going to pay.

So the world better watch out, because Niki had given into the darkness, and she was looking for revenge.

* * *

Just a short chapter, sorry if you were expecting more. The story is going to start speeding up soon so don't give up on me! Love you all <3


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood and injuries, violence/mentions of fighting, hints at insanity, um isolation i guess?  
> again, tell me if there's anything i missed as this is a long one too so i might have forgotten something (sorry i'd feel awful if i had)

Ranboo was in the strange land again.

There was no sun here, yet somehow there was still light - which confused Ranboo but then again nothing about his experiences with this land was normal, so he didn't question it too much. The floor was made of a creamy coloured cobblestone, Endstone, if Ranboo remembered correctly from last time. There seemed to be no other inhabitants, no sign of a village or a house for as far as he could see, he was surrounded by nothing but black void and creamy coloured land and hundreds and hundreds of endermen.

_What was this place?_

Ranboo smiled as he watched an enderman teleport away.

It was weird, because he felt strangely safe here, in this strange land he kept visiting in his dreams. He could remember everything while he was here too, he could remember that he was dreaming and that something weird was happening to him when he sleepwalked in his normal land. The only thing that he couldn't seem to remember was his murky past (unsurprising) and what he was doing when he was sleep walking, it was like a huge chunk of his memory had been wiped clean, as if someone had surgically removed the memories from his brain. 

So Ranboo sat there, in this strange comforting world, sat there on the edge of what seemed to be an Endstone island floating in the middle of the black endless void, his long legs swinging as he sat wondering if there was more of this land, why he kept coming here, and why the only inhabitants were endermen.

Before long though, Ranboo started to feel woozy again, like he had been drugged. As he started to lose consciousness again, this time knowing that it meant he was leaving this land and waking up, he spotted an island in the very distance, so far away it was just a dot. Something in his gut told him that that was where he needed to go next time he was here. That that island would help him find out why he kept being summoned here. Because he was being summoned here, he could feel it in his gut, in his bones and in his heart. Something was pulling him back to this land when his guard was down.

The thing that bothered Ranboo the most was that he didn't know what.

* * *

Sam and Tommy had made lots of progress on The Big Innit Hotel (as Tommy had decided to call it) over the past few days, spending hours together planning and building as Sam had lots of free time after returning to the prison three days later (as promised) to see if Dream was willing to answer yet, only to find that the man was now completely silent, refusing to talk to him.

So after working with Tommy for almost a week, Sam had discovered that he had a very short attention span, and as such hadn't been able to motivate himself to help Sam collect materials and build. Eventually, after spending an entire morning trying to motivate the boy to help him (to no avail), he had come up with an idea. That idea being playing animal crossing sounds through the communicator in his mask, and using the speech to text function to make speech bubbles appear with the tasks that he needed Tommy to do. 

It worked surprisingly well. Tommy's face had immediately lit up and he had rushed to collect the materials for Sam, seemingly loving the character that Sam had created for him.

Sam was currently working on the foundations of the hotel while Tommy was clearing Skeppy's unfinished and unused sky battle map out of the sky. Sam hoped he didn't fall, because if Tommy didn't pull off one of his legendary mlg landings, he'd most definitely die. And respawn process was uncomfortable, Sam didn't want that on his conscious.

"Sam! Sam Nook!" He heard the boy in question call out to the character he had designed to motivate him. He looked up and saw Tommy bounding towards him excitedly, sweaty and with some dirt on his face from clearing the sky map. "What do you need me to do now?" He was bouncing from one foot to the other, practically vibrating with energy.

Sam thought for a second, then pressed the setting he'd now installed on his mask to automatically switch to animal crossing sounds and speech to text, the sounds filling the air as the words appeared in a bubble next to him, "WELCOME BACK TOMMYINNIT! I SEE YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY REMOVED THE SKY MAP! WELL DONE!"

Tommy nodded proudly, trying and failing to hide his grin, "Yeah, what now?"

"AWESAMDUDE HAS INFORMED ME THAT IT IS GETTING LATE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE OVERWORKED. THEREFORE I THINK YOU SHOULD GO HOME AND REST."

Tommy's face fell, despite the fact that it was now getting dark, "But-"

Sam pressed the button again, "AWESAMDUDE HAS INFORMED ME THAT IT IS GETTING LATE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE OVERWORKED. THEREFORE I THINK YOU SHOULD GO HOME AND REST."

Tommy huffed, "But I-"

"AWESAMDUDE HAS INFORMED ME THAT IT IS GETTING LATE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE OVERWORKED. THEREFORE I THINK YOU SHOULD GO HOME AND REST."

"OKAY!" Tommy shouted, trying and failing to be annoyed at Sam since he had grown fond of the man after spending so much time with him. "Fine. I'll go home."

Sam grinned, causing Tommy to roll his eyes at Sam's smug expression. 

"Don't look too pleased about it." Tommy muttered sulkily, making Sam finally break and laugh at him. "Shut up Sam." Tommy pouted, pushing Sam's arm.

Sam grinned at him as they fell into a comfortable silence as they walked back to Tommy's house.

It had become a sort of routine, for Sam to walk Tommy back to his house, and neither of the two commented on it.

They were at the end of the path outside of Tommy's house, where usually they'd go their separate ways with a wave and a "goodnight", when Tommy suddenly said softly, terribly hidden pain in his voice, "You remind me of Will sometimes."

Sam temporarily froze, unsure how to respond to that, not knowing whether it was a good or bad thing.

Eventually he replied, "I do?"

Tommy nodded, heading over to his bench and sitting, Sam following and awkwardly hovering next to him before Tommy gestured to the bench for him to sit. 

"Yeah, you do. You remind me of how he was when we were kids," Sam resisted the urge to tell Tommy that he was still a kid. "And how he was before L'Manburg."

There was silence for a bit, Sam watching Tommy's face carefully and noting the pain and sadness in his expression. The expression of someone who had been through way too much for someone his age. 

"What was he like?" Sam whispered quietly, regretting it when Tommy's expression saddened even more. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. I want to." He hesitated, looking at the stars that were now covering the sky, thinking. "I think I do anyway, maybe it'll make me feel better."

Sam nodded, allowing Tommy time to compose himself and gather his thoughts.

"Everyone knows that me, Will and Techno are brothers," Tommy started quietly. "Everyone knows that Phil is our Dad. What no one knows is how we actually became a family, because clearly we're not all blood related." He laughed a bit, but it was a harsh laugh - one filled with bitterness. It made Sam feel cold on the inside. "Phil found us all you know, and he took us all in one at a time, because that's the type of person he is."

"He rescued Techno first." Tommy paused again, his leg vibrating slightly with nerves. "It's quite obvious, with the ears and the teeth and all, but Techno is a hybrid too. Half piglin, half human. Phil thinks he had a piglin Mum and a human Dad. Not many people know what piglins do with hybrids. They aren't seen as fully piglin, they're seen as a disgrace to the society, and they're outcasts from birth, usually abandoned or forced into the fighting pits. Techno was abandoned in the fighting pits, raised since before he could walk surrounded by blood and violence. It probably explains why he's the way he is." Sam nodded, agreeing even as his entire body felt cold hearing about Technoblade's awful past. "Once you're in the pit, fighting to amuse the piglin's who can afford to watch, it's a fight to the death. Techno was forced to fight against people twice his size, twice his skill level, and twice his age. It was fucking messed up, but clearly Techno somehow won every fight and quickly became a crowd favourite despite the fact that he wasn't even five yet. Eventually, one night, he escaped and ran. For weeks he was lost in the nether, he was almost starved to death when Phil found him and took him in. Techno was the first that Phil saved, maybe that's why he's his favourite." The bitterness in Tommy's voice as he finished off the story made Sam flinch, and it wasn't even aimed at him. 

"Will came next. A few years later, Phil was visiting a town looking for some rare herb or something when he found Will. Wilbur was seven at the time, I think, the same age Techno now was. He'd been busking that day, trying to earn enough money to buy himself something to eat, and hopefully a warm place to stay for the night if he was lucky. He'd barely made enough to afford food. Phil found him trying to fend off some older teenage boys who were bullying him into giving them his food, despite the fact that Will was surviving on his own and they had warm beds and warm food and loving families to go home to." Sam could hear the anger in Tommy's voice as he told this part of the story, seemingly more angry about this than his other older brother's past - which was interesting, and showed him some of the family dynamic. "They saw Phil approaching, looking fucking intimidating with his wings out and smashed Will's guitar before bolting in all different directions. Phil saved Will then, took him home and promised to fix his guitar for him as seven year old Wilbur cried over the broken parts, clearly distraught. That guitar was the only thing he had with him from his past, it obviously meant a lot to him. Wilbur never told any of us why it was so important to him, not even me. When Phil introduced Techno and Will, they basically hit it off instantly, despite their differences in race and never having met before. Phil always says that Techno was weary at first, but apparently Wilbur eventually melted his heart. Will found out they were both the same age and immediately claimed Techno as his twin, which Techno eventually allowed as long as he was the older twin. Will didn't care, just overjoyed that he had a family now. So Phil's mismatched family grew from two to three."

"A few years later, Wilbur found me." Tommy took a deep breath, steeling himself for his part of the story. "Phil had taken Techno and Will to the beach because Wilbur had been begging him for ages after finding a painting of the seaside in Phil's house, and Will had never seen the sea so he wanted to go. Techno was annoyed because he wanted to read, but eventually Phil gave in and said Techno could either read on the beach or just read later, because apparently Will was much more persistent, and much more annoying." Tommy smiled a bit at that, but it was still a sad smile. Everything about this story seemed sad to Sam, but he assumed that was because he knew what happened to this family later on in their story, had only ever known them as they were now - a mishmash of messy relationships and grief and betrayals. "So they were at the beach, and Phil was flying over the ocean, stretching out his wings while keeping an eye on Wilbur and Techno, who were on the beach. Will was trying to get Techno to play in the waves with him, but Techno was refusing. Wilbur kept bugging him until eventually Techno got so annoyed that he lost control, and he shoved Wilbur over. Phil turned a blind eye, because despite what he might say otherwise, Techno is his favourite and always has been, so Will ran off into the woods crying and hurt, not so much physically, more mentally that the man he saw as his Dad would turn a blind eye to that. Anyway, he ran off into the woods until he heard me crying. I was probably only four at the time according to Phil, and I was cornered by some zombies. It was getting dark and I was in the forest, so no matter where I ran they would just follow. I was young, alone, and I only had a wooden sword to defend myself, and that had snapped a while back, leaving me with a broken wooden stump as my only defense. It was a miracle that I'd survived that long in the forest by myself. I was cornered when Will found me, shaking and feebly trying to defend myself. I had been lost for days, I couldn't remember how I got in that forest or why, don't ask about my blood family because I can't remember, and I was hungry and bloody and bruised from defending myself."

Sam was staring at Tommy sadly, not even able to imagine what it was like not being able to remember your original family.

"Wilbur didn't hesitate when he saw me, lying on my back after falling over and shuffling away from the approaching zombies as fast as my sprained ankle would allow, which wasn't very fast. I was sure I was going to die, but maybe something about that situation reminded Will of the day when Phil saved him from the bullies because he immediately jumped between me and those zombies, temporarily startling them. While they were recovering from him appearing basically out of nowhere, he ran to me and helped me up, slipping an arm around me to help me walk. He turned only to find that we were now cornered against a big stone cliff by the approaching zombies, nowhere for us to go, especially with me injured. Will could have saved himself that day, just run and left me for dead as I could hardly move by myself. But he didn't. Instead, he turned us so that his back was facing the zombies, hugged me protectively to his chest, and put himself between me and those zombies like a human shield, holding me tight in his arms and scrunching his eyes shut, all while muttering to me that it would be okay, that it was going to be alright, even though he clearly believed we were both going to die."

Sam was holding his breath at this point, wondering how the two kids got out of that situation alive. For an adult it would be easy to escape, but for two defenseless kids, with one of them injured... they both should have died that day.

"Techno must have felt bad for hurting Wilbur on the beach, because he had followed Wilbur into the forest a few minutes after he had disappeared from sight, Phil landing on the beach and calling to Techno before he disappeared that once he found Wilbur they needed to go because it was starting to get dark. Techno was searching for Will, probably starting to get more worried as now night had almost fully fallen, when he heard Will cry out. He must have run towards the sound and found Wilbur trying to fend off the zombies and keep me from getting hurt because the next thing I remember is Will crying in relief and telling me that we were fine now, that we were safe. Techno had killed all of the zombies. All of them. Sliced them all into pieces with his stone sword to protect us, to protect Wilbur. He was standing there, his blade covered in gunk from the zombies, and he looked terrifying. I was scared of him at first, until Wilbur assured me that he was safe, that he had saved us, before letting go of me and rushing to Techno, hugging him tightly and whispering to him. I didn't understand until later that it was because Techno was still in what we call his bloodlust, it's when he gives into the voices he hears in his head, or when someone he loves is threatened, and he becomes violent, killing to protect us." Sam froze at the mention of bloodlust. _So Techno struggled with that too?_ "Techno eventually calmed down and shoved Will off of him, calling him an idiot for running into the forest that late at night with nothing to protect him, Wilbur agreed and apologised and said he'd never do it again, before he returned to me and tried to pick me up, except he wasn't strong enough, so eventually Techno came over and picked me up instead. They brought me back to Phil, and I remember being terrified of Techno the entire time because he looked different and scary and had just killed all those zombies. Wilbur begged Phil to help me, to take me in like he had with Techno and Will. Phil took one look at me, and at Wilbur's face and then took me in too."

Tommy turned his head to look at Sam, and to his immense surprise, he saw that the boy's eyes were watery. _Tommy never cried, at least never in front of people..._

"That's how you remind me of Wilbur, Sam. The way that Wilbur protected me that day, despite the fact that he would have died too, had Techno not saved us. There were many incidents growing up where Will protected me or stood up for me, whether it was against Techno or Phil if they got annoyed at me, or against monsters, or even something as simple as me having a nightmare or being ill. Will practically raised me. Something about you, Sam, reminds me of that. Don't think I haven't noticed the way you walk me to and from my house every day, like you're protecting me from a threat that isn't there anymore, or how you scared off Ranboo the other day, because you thought I didn't know he was living with Techno and Phil now, and you didn't want to upset me." Sam didn't realise Tommy had seen that, or that he knew why he had done it, although it had been less "scaring off" and more just diverting the half-enderman's attention to something else. "And how you force me to take care of myself by reminding me to eat and sleep. It feels weird."

Sam didn't know what to say, completely taken aback at Tommy's sudden openness.

Tommy noticed and immediately clammed up again, regretting accidentally oversharing, "That got fucking deep. Anyway, night Big S." Tommy forced a wide grin, saluted and was gone before Sam could react, the door to his house swinging shut behind him.

Sam sat there for a bit, completely shell-shocked. He stared at the night sky as he sat there thinking about what Tommy had said, the dark blackness like a blanket that covered the world, specks of dust forming stars that shone brightly down on the SMP. 

"That was one hell of a story." Said a dry, monotone voice behind him, making Sam jump and reach for his weapon, spinning around.

He sighed when he saw Purpled stood behind him. Of course it was Purpled, he was probably the only person on the server who could approach that quietly. 

Purpled grinned when he saw how Sam jumped, he sat down next to him as he teased, "Did I make you jump?"

Sam grumbled, "Yes, and you know it. Probably did it on purpose knowing you." 

"Mhm." Purpled smirked, relaxing on the bench, seeming perfectly content to sit there in silence.

For a few minutes, the pair sat there in silence, the darkness of the night swirling through the air around them and making it almost impossible to see each other's faces.

"So I'm assuming you heard all of that conversation?" Sam eventually asked, turning his head slightly to face Purpled.

"I did." Purpled nodded, reclined on the bench with his eyes closed and his head tilted towards the sky.

"You... you're not going to tell anyone, Purpled. You can't." Sam said forcefully, causing Purpled to open his eyes and turn to look at him.

Purpled leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees as he said equally as forcefully, "Actually I can. And I'm pretty sure, Sam, that you of all people aren't going to stop me."

Sam suppressed the urge to shout at Purpled, remembering that he was just as much of a teenager as Tommy was. "Pur-"

"But you don't need to worry, I'm not going to tell anyone." Purpled grinned, relaxing again.

Sam frowned, genuinely surprised, "You're not? Why?"

"No need to sound so surprised. I'm not going to tell anyone because there would be no benefit for me in that." Purpled didn't tell Sam that it was also because he thought telling people a private story that you had overheard, especially one as traumatic as Tommy's, was a real dick move.

 _Of course that was why_ , Sam thought to himself.

"Obviously." Sam muttered. 

Purpled heard the annoyance in Sam's voice, but didn't comment on it. 

As they sat there in comfortable silence, Purpled thought back to another, very different set of conversations he had overheard a few days ago, wondering if he should warn Sam.

He had been sat on the roof of Eret's museum, like you do, watching the inhabitants of the SMP go about their day. He called it people-watching, and despite how fucking creepy that sounded, it was one of his favourite things to do. Purpled loved watching how everyone interacted and went about their days, as long as it didn't directly involve him. His people watching habit also meant that he got to see most of the things that happened, and he overheard lots of conversations, and basically he knew lots of things that were happening - it made him powerful and it made him dangerous, especially as he was often in places where no one would notice him and so therefore overheard important things.

In this instance, he had been chilling in a relatively big alcove at the very top of Eret's open-topped museum, watching the world go by from a higher vantage point than usual. About half an hour after he'd been hidden there, Eret and Niki entered the museum, both of them laughing - Eret's deep chuckle contrasting with Niki's high-pitched giggles. They were showing her the progress he'd made, how they'd started on the recreation of the community house.

She was impressed, and everything was going fine until she saw the parallels that Eret had made between the final control room, and the button room. Niki froze, her eyes falling on the button and the few signs that had been placed in the room. Not all of the ones that had been in the original ones, but the ones that Philza could remember being there, as Eret had had to ask him for references considering the original room had been blown up during the second time L'Manburg was destroyed, leaving Philza the only living soul that had been inside - that they knew of.

"And I'm planning on putting the posters from Dream's bunker here if I can find whoever took them and persuade them to- Niki?" Eret stopped in the middle of their talking when he noticed Niki wasn't listening anymore, just staring at the recreation of the button room. 

Purpled was watching now, interested as he heard Eret's deep voice echo up the edges of the museum as he realised, "Oh shit. Niki, I'm so sorry. I didn't think-"

Niki visibly pulled herself together, "No, it's okay Eret. I'm fine, don't worry about it."

Eret clearly didn't believe her, and neither did Purpled. "Niki, you don't need to lie, it's okay to not be okay..."

"I'm fine Eret." Niki snapped, more forcefully than either of the two listening had ever heard her speak.

Eret gave in, "Alright, if you're sure." He studied her face closely, worry flashing in his eyes as he really started to notice the start of dark circles appearing under her eyes, and her chapped lips and the manic glint in her eyes that hinted that she really, _really_ wasn't okay. "Just know I'm here if you ever want to talk, Niki."

Niki's gaze softened, "Thank you Eret, I'll keep that in mind."

The two had then left, leaving Purpled to think about what he had witnessed.

A few hours later, the sun was setting and the sky was now painted various shades of purple and red and orange and pink. It was beautiful - like a canvas someone had splashed with watercolours.

Purpled was walked through the SMP, fully intent on heading back to his house and working on his newest project, when he saw Jack Manifold up ahead. At first glance, he appeared completely normal. After a few seconds of watching him though, Purpled realised he was acting extremely shadily. Maybe it was the way he was walking, clearly in a hurry, or maybe it was the way he glanced around every few seconds, obviously not wanting to be followed. 

And so Purpled did what everyone would have done in that situation, he followed him.

Jack didn't realise he was being followed, which was unsurprising considering that Purpled was basically a professional, and so he lead Purpled right to where he was going. He trekked out into the woods, away from the mainland SMP, and eventually reached a small hole in the ground - clearly man-made - and dropped down it, Purpled following a few moments later.

To his surprise, Purpled was now in what seemed to be the start of some sort of underground base.

Jack was up ahead, just turning the corner of the roughly carved stone tunnel, his footsteps echoing back towards Purpled.

He followed, his own footsteps making no sound, and hesitated around the corner, not knowing what was there and knowing it would be stupid to look in case he got spotted. Luckily, he didn't have to, because a quiet voice with a gentle German accent started speaking then, a familiar voice that actually surprised Purpled to hear as the hushed conversation drifted towards him.

Why was Jack Manifold sneaking all the way out here to have a conversation with Niki Nihachu if it wasn't something they shouldn't be doing? Jack had been acting shady after all, and everyone would say they were an unusual pair, an unusual friendship, if they knew these two were now talking.

"Did you get the gunpowder?" Jack asked, his northern British accent sounding harsher than usual in the presence of Niki and her soft voice.

Purpled felt Niki flinch, even though he couldn't see her, and could imagine her handing over a bag of gunpowder to Jack. Niki didn't like gunpowder, or TNT. Everyone knew that - it was a commonly known fact after she had had a melt down a few days after Wilbur blew up L'manberg when she had found some unlit TNT that had escaped the blast, so why was she getting some for Jack Manifold?

"Thanks Niki, sorry about asking you to get some, it's just that Tubbo needs loads for his nukes and if anyone was going to be able to find where Wilbur hid the left over stuff, it was you." Jack apologised, sounding genuinely sorry as the bag of gunpowder he'd taken from Niki made a sound like sand falling as he adjusted his grip on it.

"It's okay." Niki whispered slightly snappily, "Forget about it. How is the nuke development going? Do you have a testing date and location yet?"

Purpled didn't hear the rest because his mind was spinning and trying to process about a hundred times faster than usual. _Nukes?!_ There was no way that Tubbo was actually developing nukes. Jack must have somehow known he was following and they were pulling a prank on him... but no, Jack didn't know he had been following. So it must be true. Fuck. _Nukes._

"-just make sure Tommy is there." Jack finished, making Purpled frown.

_Hang on, when did Tommy become part of this conversation? Fuck, he should have been listening instead of panicking over the fucking nuclear weapons._

"Jack stop it, just trust me, he'll be there." Niki said forcefully, and Purpled could hear the smile in her voice. 

"I've got to go now, or Tubbo will start wondering where I've been, he's already wary of me because of how often I slip away to meet you. With his trust issues, if he grows too suspicious of me then the plan won't work-"

Purpled stopped listening then, creeping away down the tunnel and back towards the exit. The risk of being discovered had become too high and he needed to leave so he could process what he had heard. 

It sounded like Tubbo was developing nukes with Jack Manifold, most likely in Snowchester where they both lived now. It also sounded like Jack and Niki were planning something involving these nukes that involved Tommy. This was a plan Tubbo clearly didn't know about if how concerned Jack was about keeping his trust was anything to go by. 

_What the hell had this server become?_

Purpled glanced at Sam out of the corner of his eye. If there was some sort of plot involving Tommy and nukes, then Sam should know, because Tommy and nukes in a sentence together didn't go well, and it sounded dangerous. Tommy might be the one in danger, he might need protecting ... but then again, if Purpled told Sam, then Sam would want to know how he knew, and he would be all up in Purpled's business... and he couldn't be bothered with that. So Purpled decided to keep it to himself for now, to find out more before telling Sam if it turned out that Tommy really was in danger.

Hopefully that was the right decision.

* * *

Techno and Phil where sat in Techno's snowy cabin far away from everyone. It was snowing outside, getting heavier and heavier by the second.

Phil was stood by the window, looking out at the snowflakes that made it so you couldn't see more than a few metres in front of you. "It's going to turn into a snowstorm." He muttered to Techno, who was sat at the table with a warm drink and flicking through a book. "I might need to stay the night Techno, I can't get back to my house in these conditions."

Techno nodded, keeping his eyes glued to his book. "I wasn't going to let you leave while it was snowing anyway Phil, you forget you're not as young as you used to be. You can use my bed and I'll sleep on the couch." 

Phil turned to look at his son fondly, grinning widely, "Did you just call me old?"

Techno looked up and smirked, "Yes."

Phil rolled his eyes playfully and turned back to the window, watching the snowfall again.

There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"Do you think Ranboo is alright?" Techno suddenly asked.

Phil tore his eyes away from the window and turned to see that Techno had moved without making a noise, now stood by the other window and staring out in the direction of Ranboo's little shack. It wasn't built to withstand snowstorms like this but it had only meant to be a temporary thing. There wasn't a glow through the snow like there usually was, the light that indicated that Ranboo was home, safe and warm painfully absent.

It worried him that he couldn't see that light, and clearly it worried Techno too. 

"I'm going out there to check if he's alright." Techno suddenly said, starting to throw on his snow clothes. 

Phil grabbed his arm, making Techno stop (more out of respect for Phil than him actually being strong enough to stop Techno), "You can't go out there Techno, it's fucking freezing. Way too cold for you."

Techno rolled his eyes, shoving off Phil's concerned hand and slipping his snow boots and furry cloak on. "I'll be fine."

Phil couldn't do anything but watch as his eldest slipped through the spruce doors into the storm, letting them swing shut with a loud thunk behind him.

He waited for what felt like forever when it was probably only five minutes.

Techno eventually returned, Phil rushing to him and brushing the snow off of him in concern, causing Techno to grumble that he was babying him and rolling his eyes. 

"He's not there." Techno said, sitting down and looking at Phil with worry in his eyes. "I checked everywhere, even that not-so-secret underground bit he made, all of his stuff is there but I can't find him anywhere."

Phil felt worry start to gnaw at him.

"I'm sure he's fine, he's probably staying with Tubbo for the night at Snowchester, you know he spends most of his time there." Phil tried comforting his son.

Techno saw Phil pull out his communicator, an object that everyone on the server had but rarely used. "It won't work, I already tried. I think the snowstorm is tampering with the connection between our communicators and his."

"Fuck." Phil muttered, realising there was no way to confirm that Ranboo was safe.

Techno stood and went to the window again, staring at the tundra of snow with concern, brown eyes gaining a red tint as he scanned the snow. "What if he's out there Phil? He might have got caught in the snow on his way home, he might have got lost or injured or a hundred other things... and he's half enderman. Snow hurts him Phil."

Phil could sense Techno's rising panic and stepped forwards, placing a hand on Techno's arm. "Techno, there's nothing we can do. We just have to hope he's with Tubbo."

Techno shrugged Phil's hand off in annoyance, going to put on his snow gear again. "No, I'm going out there Phil. We can't just assume he's safe when he might not be. What if he needs our help?"

Phil stood in front of the doors, blocking Techno's way with his body and his shredded wings. Before, he would have been able to block the entire exit, but after using his wings to protect him and Wilbur from the explosion, his wings had been shredded, leaving him with only stumps. They would grow back eventually, but they'd never be as strong or as beautiful as before, and the loss of his wings was something he was still dealing with. Techno knew this, and that was why he didn't push Phil aside, although he could have done easily now he didn't have the extra strength his wings used to give him, Techno couldn't betray Phil like that. 

"Phil. _Move_." Techno spat through gritted teeth.

Phil held his ground, "Techno, I can't let you go out there. You'll get ill."

"AND RANBOO WILL FUCKING DIE IF HE'S OUT THERE AND I DON'T FIND HIM!" Techno roared, finally losing his cool when his worry got too much.

Phil flinched at the loud tone, it was so unusual for Techno to even raise his voice, let alone shout and swear.

"Techn-"

They both froze and fell silent as they heard staggering footsteps on the snow outside the door, and then someone collapsing against it with a loud thud.

Then a familiar voice filled with pain and exhaustion that was so quiet it could barely be heard over the storm rasped, "Phil? Techno? Are you guys in?"

Ranboo.

Techno pushed Phil out of the way, causing the man to stagger, and rushed to the door. He flung it open and Ranboo fell through, clearly having been leaning on the door. Techno caught him and carried the almost unconscious lanky teenager inside. Phil closed the door behind them.

"Oh, hey guys." Ranboo said sleepily once he realised he was now inside.

Phil felt his stomach twist when he saw the burn marks on Ranboo's exposed skin as Techno laid him on the sagging and patched maroon couch. He had armour that was supposed to stop this from happening... so where was it?

"Shit." Techno muttered as Ranboo's eyes fluttered shut. "Oi." He snapped his fingers in front of his face, causing Ranboo to slowly open his eyes again. "None of that, don't you dare fall asleep."

Ranboo nodded sleepily. "Tired..."

Phil snapped into action, rushing to the chests and grabbing potions and bandages.

"Hurts..." Ranboo muttered, tears falling from his eyes as Techno and Phil started tending to his wounds. 

Techno knew that crying would be hurting the teenager too, the salty tears stinging his enderman skin. He had an idea, and quickly hurried to his chests, looking for a grass block. He found one discarded at the bottom and grabbed it, immediately hurrying over to the hybrid and handing it to him.

Ranboo took it subconsciously, hugging it close to his chest as he started muttering in a different language... endermen language. Eventually, his tears slowly stopped as they tended to his burns, the grass block comforting him enough that he was distracted from the pain.

"Grass block was a good idea," Phil muttered quietly to Techno as Ranboo started having a conversation with some invisible endermen, communicating in chirps and grunts that neither man understood.

"Thanks." Techno whispered back as he unwrapped the bandages that were on Ranboo's hands and wrists, needing to check that he wasn't hurt underneath them and wondering why and when Ranboo had put them on.

He gasped when Ranboo's hands were fully exposed. Phil swore.

"What the fuck? What happened?" Phil asked, his eyes flitting to Ranboo's face briefly. The teenager was still distracted, grass block cuddled up to his face and chirping away contentedly. 

Techno just shook his head, completely speechless.

Ranboo's hands were a mess of raw, ripped flesh. He had blisters on his palms and fresh cuts and wounds amongst the old ones on his fingers and the backs of his hands, scars on his wrists and arms disappearing beneath his clothes. The once smooth, untouched skin now a wasteland of scars and jaggedly healed injuries. 

Neither man knew what to say, Ranboo was too drugged up on healing and strength potions to realise that they were staring at his hands in horror.

"How could we not have noticed?" Phil asked.

"I don't know." Techno replied, re-wrapping Ranboo's hands gently after softly applying some healing gel onto the wounds, which had made Ranboo flinch.

Ranboo yawned, his eyes fluttering shut again and his head drooping before it snapped upwards as he forced his eyes open, soft strands of his hair falling across his forehead. "Can I sleep now Tech-" _yawn_ "-no?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"Of course mate." Phil muttered, still upset about the teens hands.

Ranboo's sleepy eyes flicked to Techno for confirmation. Techno nodded and Ranboo almost immediately passed out, his grass block clutched to his cheek as he curled up in a fetal position.

A piece of cream coloured stone fell out of his pocket and onto the stone floor, rolling until it hit Techno's foot.

He picked it up, fully intent on throwing it away until he realised it wasn't a piece of stone. Well it was, but it also wasn't.

"Phil." Techno suddenly said, looking up and catching Phil in the middle of carefully tucking a patched yellow blanket (Techno tried to ignore that it was Tommy's old blanket) around Ranboo. "Phil look at this."

There must have been an urgency in his tone that made Phil curious, because he hurried over immediately as Techno sat down at the large table that was in the center of his small cabin, placing the material in front of him. Phil sat down opposite him and reached for the material.

He studied it for a few minutes, turning it over in his hands and holding it up to his face and shining light on it with a torch, taking in its netherrack like appearance and soft texture. 

"It looks like cobblestone or netherrack, but like it was painted yellow or something." Techno observed, making sure to speak quietly so as not to wake the sleeping boy on the couch.

"More cream-coloured than yellow, but yes." Phil muttered. "I feel like I should know what this is." 

"Same." Techno replied, after thinking for a few minutes and staring at the unknown material. "Do you think we knew what it is on different servers but for some reason server-hopping to this server wiped it from our memories?"

Phil looked at Techno with wide eyes, clearly considering what he said. "That's smart. It sounds impossible, server-hopping isn't supposed to do that."

Techno was convinced that his idea was true though, "True, but this sever isn't exactly normal. We got stuck here once we were through and you're permanently dead after dying 'canonically' three times." 

"True." Phil muttered thoughtfully.

It was an interesting concept, Phil would admit that much. 

Server-hopping was something that everyone did. You were born in a server and when you grew up it was normal for you to hop to a different server if you wanted to, because you could always leave at any point in time. There were hardcore servers where once you died you would return to the void that was between servers and never be able to join the same server again. There were servers where you could never die and had infinite amounts of anything and everything - "creative mode" servers is what Phil was pretty sure they were called, having visited a couple briefly before. They were usually servers filled with wondrous cities and impressive builds, as well as mostly obnoxious people because they didn't take damage and could fly without wings - basically floating and walking on invisible blocks in the air, it was all very odd in Phil's opinion. Then there were survival servers and mini-game servers, some of which were illegal (like Hypixel, the only server that had successfully managed to run bedwars without being discovered and closed down, as bedwars had been declared illegal years ago now, after something went wrong during a game and the respawn function temporarily stopped working and many people were hurt or somehow glitched and permanently died), where you died but had an infinite amount of respawns. 

When a server would "die", destroyed by wars or famine or disease, people would flood between servers, their old server becoming what was known as a "Black Server" - still existing and having people living there, but it was constantly night and overrun by monsters and shadows and nightmares that would terrorize the server and the poor remaining inhabitants who hadn't left in time, making it impossible for anyone to leave or join. Phil had never seen one, despite his own server having been long since destroyed, his winged family and neighbours and friends long gone. But that wasn't what had happened to the Dream SMP because people could still join - it was just that no one could leave and for some reason if you died three times then you were gone forever. That wasn't normal.

Phil had found all of his kids on different servers while he had been hopping between them in hopes of finding one where he could settle down after his own server became a Black Server, trying to fill the pain in his heart with a new family, becoming more and more desperate when it didn't seem to work.

He had continued to server-hop while raising Techno and Will, even server-hopping when he had adopted Tommy, despite how young they all were.

It hurt him to remember that, the mistakes of his past.

Phil remembered one night when Tommy was turning seven the next day and Wilbur was thirteen, Techno having turned fourteen already but Will denying that because they were "twins". Phil had come home late, Tommy was already in bed and asleep - Wilbur having put him to bed, Techno was curled up on the sofa reading with his long pink hair in a messy bun and his reading glasses perched on his nose, and Will attempting to play the guitar - distracted for some reason. He couldn't remember how it happened, but Phil and Wilbur had ended up in a shouting match about how Phil was never there and how he was being a shit dad. He remembered that their loud voices had woken Tommy, who had wandered sleepily into the room, clutching the yellow blanket that Wilbur had given him on his first day he was adopted into the family - the same one that was now wrapped around a different sleeping boy on Techno's couch. He remembered how Will had screamed at him, voice breaking as Techno quickly got up from the sofa, trying to usher Tommy out of the room, eventually resorting to picking up the small boy when he refused to move, Tommy's wide blue eyes staring at his older brother and his adoptive father as they had a screaming match, and carrying him away. Will had screamed, "HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A FATHER IF YOU'RE NEVER FUCKING HERE?!" Phil had been angry, his wings extending and his eyes ablaze with rage. Rage that was easily matched by Wilbur as he rasped, tears pouring down his cheeks, "Tommy called me Dad the other day Phil, he didn't even realise what he had said and I couldn't find it in me to tell him that I wasn't actually his Dad, and that the man that was supposed to be his Dad was off fucking around servers, searching for something that was already right here." That was what really hurt him, seeing how much he had fucked-up, witnessing the sadness is Techno's eyes as he stood in the doorway after having returned from removing his youngest brother from the room, Tommy peaking out from behind his leg without him knowing. "Wilby?" Tommy had whispered in a scared voice, clearly distressed at seeing Wilbur so upset. Techno had looked surprised - clearly not having realised that Tommy had snuck out of his room again, looking down and muttering, "Oh come here you little git, I thought I put you back to bed." Tommy giggled and ran away from his oldest brother, his six-year-old brain easily distracted from the situation by Techno chasing after him and playfully threatening to tickle him, leading to squeals from the young boy as he ran through the house. Will smiled slightly at the noise, although it was sad and pained as he stared at Phil. "See? We don't need you, we've learnt how to live without you because you're always off server-hopping and looking for something that you're never going to find. I know everything you used to love is gone Phil, but server-hopping and leaving behind the family you created isn't going to fill that hole." He had hesitated. "It's not going to find you a home. You're just ruining your second chance at having a happy family..." After a few minutes of tension-filled silence, Phil had left without a word, leaving Will to break down in the living room as Techno returned, finally having succeeded in putting Tommy to bed and giving his younger brother one of his rare hugs as Wilbur sobbed into his shoulder.

Phil blinked, bringing himself back out of the memory. "I think what you said could be true. I guess we won't know what it is until Ranboo wakes up."

Techno nodded in agreement, his eyes holding a sad look, clearly having got lost in his own head too - probably thinking about Wilbur or Tommy if the way he glanced at the photograph that was in a smashed glass frame on the wall was anything to go by. The photo was of a sixteen year old Techno dressed in what Tommy used to call one of his "old-man jumpers" with his pink hair pulled into a ponytail and his piglin ears exposed (if you looked carefully you could see the tiny black tattooed numbers on the edge of them that gave away his past in the fighting ring before he met Phil), not smiling but also not frowning at the camera - a huge difference to usual. Wilbur was next to him (also sixteen), grinning his charming smile and wearing a knitted yellow sweater that Ghostbur now wore, with a maroon beanie hat pulled on his brown curls, his glasses almost being knocked off of his face by Tommy. Tommy was ten in the photo, and he was forcing his way in between Will and someone who had been ripped out of the photo. He was wearing one of Techno's "old-man" jumpers too (it was way too big on him) and had stolen Techno's reading glasses as well, grinning widely as he pulled a stupid face at the camera - mouth teeth and metal braces. Phil knew that the person that had been ripped out of the photo had to be Sally, the ginger lock of hair that was remaining in the photo and the way Wilbur's arm was reaching behind Tommy and cut off at the jagged, ripped edge (as if he had had he arm around her before Tommy pushed between them) a dead giveaway that the person missing from the photo was Fundy's mother... even though Phil had never met her. 

"I think I'll stay up and make sure Ranboo is alright tonight Phil." Techno said, settling himself in an armchair with an axe propped against it next to him - the axe Ranboo had gifted him if Phil wasn't mistaken. "You can still take my bed."

Phil knew that Techno had made up his mind from the way that he had gotten comfy and decided he couldn't be bothered to argue with the stubborn man. He was sure that he was more stubborn than the average person - probably a piglin trait.

"If you insist." Phil grinned, slightly halfheartedly.

Techno grunted, picking up his book again. "Night Phil."

"Night." He replied, disappearing up the ladder that lead into the loft of Techno's cabin, where his bedroom was located. 

In his sleep, Ranboo muttered in enderman. Trying to warn them that something was coming. An unknown threat.

And there was nothing they could do about it.

* * *

I feel like this chapter is super long... I may or may not have got a little carried away. There's probably loads of typos but i can't be bothered to check for them all now so I'll do that later. Also, if you're wondering about spellings and stuff, I'm actually British so we spell words like "color" and "neighbor" like "colour" and "neighbour" and stuff like that, hopefully that hasn't confused anyone who spells them differently.

I actually forgot to drink today so i just downed a bottle of water so remember to hydrate and eat something if you can! Take care of yourselves. <3


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Manipulation, implied suicidal thoughts, implied suicide attempt, hearing voices
> 
> lots of angst, sorry  
> (again if i miss a trigger someone please tell me)

Dream finished counting the different shades of purple in the specks of the crying obsidian for maybe the one hundredth time since Sam had added them after catching him trying to escape by making a nether portal. _121,031 separate dots of colour in one piece of obsidian in his prison_.

He sighed, completely bored of counting and knowing he could leave anytime he wanted. But it wasn't time yet, and in a strange way he was safer in here anyway for now.

The prison was "inescapable" which also meant it was practically impossible to get into.

The pistons made a noise, signifying that they were moving, meaning the lava was retracting and Sam was finally returning - interrupting Dream's musings. 

Sam entered the prison with a new clock, which surprised Dream. He watched as the man wordlessly walked over to his old clock and replaced it with the new one, even from his current position lying on the floor staring at the ceiling he could see the words engraved into the side of it. _DO NOT BURN_. 

"Ready to talk yet?" Sam asked, his face harder than before as he turned to Dream, staring at the man lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling. Sam realised that for some reason, now Dream's mask was gone, his features were blurred so his face still couldn't be seen clearly. It was extremely unnerving. "If not then I can just leave again."

It hurt him sometimes, having to be like this towards his old friend... but for Tommy he'd do it. He wouldn't let Dream manipulate him too, that's why he'd brought him his final clock with _do not burn_ engraved on it. A warning to the man that he was completely serious about this and he wouldn't be taking pity on him when he got lonely.

Dream laughed, the sound menacing and containing barely hidden insanity, sitting up and leaning forwards, resting his arms on his knees as he stared at Sam. He might not be able to see his face but he could definitely feel the man's stare.

"Are you sure you want to know? You sure your weak mind can take it? Sure you won't lose control?" Dream taunted.

Sam's jaw clenched as Dream tried to get a reaction from him.

"Either you tell me or you don't Dream." Sam said in a final tone.

When Dream didn't say anything else, Sam went to leave, the double layer of bars going up behind him. Sam was about to retract the lava when Dream suddenly said, the grin evident in his voice, "It was so _easy_ , Sam."

Sam froze, then relaxed his shoulders and turned to look at Dream, who was still sat staring at him nonchalantly, but Sam knew that Dream had seen Sam's reaction to what he had just said and was feeling pleased with himself.

"Tommy held out hope that people would visit him at first, and Ranboo did for a while, but I couldn't have that, right Sam? Can you see how that was a problem for me?" Dream waited for a while, as if he actually expected an answer from Sam. "No, I couldn't have Ranboo undermining all my work. So do you know what I did?" Another pause, like a teacher asking a student for an answer. "I got into his head, made him doubt himself." Sam was tense again. "Soon enough Ranboo had too many of his own problems to try and visit Tommy frequently, and for some reason every time he decided he was going to make time to visit the boy, he suddenly doubted himself, because visiting Tommy made him a traitor, did it not? What do you think Sam? It's one of the questions Ranboo consistently asks himself, even now with L'Manburg gone and the war over. Isn't it quite amusing that he still doesn't know the answer?" Sam was finally starting to see the monster Dream had turned into, having briefly glimpsed it in the bunker, he was now experiencing the fully undiluted thing. There was no trace of the man that was once his friend. "So now Ranboo was dealt with. Good. That left Tommy practically defenseless against the doubts he was starting to have about his friends, about himself."

Sam shifted closer to the bars subconsciously. 

"You know what Stockholm Syndrome is, right Sam?" Sam did know. "I suppose that would be a term that could fit what happened next perfectly." Sam didn't like where this was going. "I made sure I was the only one who visited Tommy and he eventually started to rely on me so much that when I didn't visit he felt so alone that he started having dark dark thoughts. I'll admit I hadn't expected it to work quite so well to the point where the boy was basically relying on me to keep living." Sam felt ill at what Dream was implying. "But I wasn't complaining. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had hidden away things from his friends, photos and useless possessions that reminded him of them. I wouldn't have minded, despite it being slightly annoying, if it hadn't been that they were making Tommy less easy to control. So I disposed of them."

"Have you ever seen Tommy cry Sam?" Sam didn't know if the night Tommy told him about his past counted, as tears hadn't actually physically fallen. "He cried when I destroyed them, and after that he was finally broken, completely in my control." Sam wanted to ask if Dream had ever hit Tommy after seeing Tommy flinch so many times when people made sudden movements. He wanted to ask what else he had done to terrorize the boy into having nightmares so terrible that he refused to sleep for days afterwards. But Sam couldn't bring himself to ask, not able to stomach hearing someone who was once his friend tell him how badly he hurt the child he now saw as family. It hurt too much just thinking about it. 

"That's enough Dream." Sam interrupted when Dream went to speak once more. "That's enough."

Dream grinned as he watched emotions flicker across Sam's face. _Humans, even hybrids, were so easy to upset_.

"I'll be back tomorrow." Sam eventually muttered, his tone hard as the lava finally retracted.

Dream gave him a mocking salute, "And I'll be here, waiting to see the face of my favourite creeper."

Sam turned away, refusing to rise to the bait that Dream was hanging in front of him, and stepped onto the bridge as the lava fell again - leaving Dream in his cell.

Creeper. _Creeper. Creeper. Creeper_...

Not human, not hybrid.

_Creeper._

No. 

He wasn't going to let Dream get in his head.

Sam let out a frustrated breath and stepped off the bridge, opening up the secret passageways that he traveled around the prison in - the ones that were only accessible to him.

He was so much more than a creeper.

Fuck Dream for using the one thing that he knew would get in Sam's head.

 _Fuck him_.

* * *

For once, Ranboo didn't dream of anything. 

It was a blessing. No ominous voices and faceless men chasing him, no having to climb and mine and claw at walls to escape. He didn't even end up in that strange place with all the endermen, even though he wasn't completely sure whether that was real or a figment of his imagination.

"Shhh, you'll wake him up Tech."

"Phil, with all due respect, if this nerd doesn't wake up soon you're going to have heart failure from the stress. Stress isn't good for you in your old age."

"I'm 32 Techno. I'm not old." Phil deadpanned as Ranboo's eyes fluttered slightly, the teen slowly returning to consciousness.

"Sure." Techno replied teasingly.

Ranboo cracked open his eyes, immediately shutting them with a small groan when bright light blinded them.

Phil and Techno were by his side in an instant, he could feel their presence hovering next to him.

"Everything aches." Ranboo rasped, his voice cracking.

"If you can sit up I have water." Phil's voice replied.

Ranboo couldn't even nod, his head aching too much from the light.

"Too bright." He muttered, keeping his eyes scrunched shut as Techno helped him sit up, and flinching at the pain the movement brought him.

He felt the brightness in the room lower even through his closed eyelids and slowly opened his eyes, blinking blearily at the concerned pair in front of him. 

Phil handed him a glass of water and he took it, slowly bringing it to his lips and sipping from it, the water almost instantly curing the dryness of his throat. Ranboo often wondered why drinking water didn't hurt him but always assumed it was just hybrid mechanics and chose not to question it too much. 

He realised he had been passed out on Techno's couch, a yellow blanket tucked around him and his battered Hypixel crown placed on the large spruce table in the center of the room. His face stung and his body hurt. He noticed his hands had new bandages and his heart temporarily dropped when he realised one (if not both) of them had now seen his injured hands. 

The pair let him finish the glass of water before the questioning began.

"What happened Ranboo? Where's your armour?" Phil immediately questioned.

Ranboo frowned, confused, "Huh?"

Techno seemed to realise that the teen had no idea what was going on and stepped in, "Do you remember what happened yesterday? You can take your time if you need to."

Ranboo's brows furrowed as he concentrated on yesterday.

He had started off the day in L'Manberg, or L'Manhole - as it had now been dubbed, waking up next to one of the horrible red vines that had started growing all over the server. His pickaxe hadn't been fully broken this time, the durability just slightly lower than usual, so instead of fixing it he just headed to Snowchester to meet with Tubbo, not really having much else to do. He remembered walking past the hotel Tommy and Sam had started working on, waving to the pair but not interacting further, using his trident to fly (it was raining and much faster) to get to Snowchester, and remembered landing almost directly in front of Tubbo and how Tubbo had called him a dick for scaring him half to death when he fell out of the sky and appeared out of nowhere. The pair (plus Foolish) had then traveled to Foolish's Summer Home and spent a few hours messing around and making it difficult for Foolish to continue his work. After that, they went their different ways, Tubbo back to Snowchester to show Puffy the space left where she could choose to build a house if she wanted to, and Ranboo to... _blank_.

"I-" Ranboo paused, thinking even harder.

Did he meet Purpled at some point yesterday? He must have done, because he had some vague recollection of talking to the teen and agreeing to meet up to practice sparring sometime, bonding slightly over both their time fighting at Hypixel - despite playing in different categories and Purpled clearly thinking Bedwars was superior to Skywars (not that Ranboo particularly cared).

So he met Purpled, but that was in the evening, he remembered because the sun was setting... so what did he do before that?

He... met with... met with... with... "Techno?"

"Hmm?"

"Was it yesterday we visited Pogtopia?" Ranboo asked, having another brief recollection of that.

"Yup. In the afternoon, after that you said you had stuff to do and I didn't see you until you turned up injured on our doorstep. I'd assumed you were going to see Tubbo." Technoblade replied, ignoring Phil's surprised reaction hearing about the pairs brief adventure to Pogtopia.

If Techno was going to be honest, the place held lots of memories, bad ones (like when he fought Tommy in the pit), as well as good ones that hurt to remember now. Ranboo had thought the place had been creepy now it was abandoned, the entire place covered in buttons made from all different materials, torches that had once been constantly lit now burnt to nothing, leaving the ravine in almost pitch black darkness. It felt haunted, haunted by ghosts from the past. Everywhere Techno looked he would remember something about the place, how they were still sort of a family, despite the fractures that had been forming in their relationships. It felt even more abandoned and haunted, almost post-apocalyptic when they discovered most of the chests had been looted by people, except the chest room that Techno had told him only the people who used to live there knew existed, hidden away in a dark corner - when they had searched the chests in there they had discovered enchanted diamond swords and iron and diamond armour pieces, clearly left over from battles and forgotten after the war was over. All the food had been looted, Techno's potato farm destroyed and starting to be overcome by mobs. It had been an eerie and sobering experience for both of them, more so Techno than Ranboo as Techno had lived there once upon a time. Been happy there - if he was willing to admit that to himself, which he wasn't.

Ranboo remembered the entire experience now Techno had confirmed it.

"I think after that I... met with Purpled?" Ranboo muttered, thinking hard. "But only briefly. Then after that I... I'm not sure, it's all completely blank, but I lost my armour somehow... I think I might had been enderwalking again."

"Enderwalking?" Phil questioned.

Ranboo froze, like he hadn't meant to mention that. "Oh. Um, yeah. Enderwalking is what I've started calling my sleepwalking that I do."

Techno and Phil nodded, exchanging glances that Ranboo didn't understand. 

"Can you tell us what this is Ranboo?" Phil asked, walking over to the table and lifting a material into his hands that Ranboo vaguely recognised. He passed it to him.

Ranboo blinked, feeling a sudden rush of comfort radiate through his body the moment it was placed in his hands.

_Endstone._

The name of the material rang through his head. For some reason, he felt like he'd had this experience before, not in this world... but maybe in some other...

Techno felt the tension he hadn't realised was there melt from Ranboo's body the moment the teenager came into contact with the unknown material. All his stress and worry seemed to disappear from his face as he mouthed a word.

It almost looked like... Endstone? Maybe? His lipreading skills weren't the best.

"Endstone." Ranboo said out loud, absentmindedly hugging it closer to him. Was it just him or did it feel like his injuries were getting less and less painful?

"Do you remember where it came from?" Techno asked, watching carefully for Ranboo's reaction.

Ranboo hesitated, knowing exactly where it came from now he was holding it. It was slowly but surely clearing his mind now he was holding the endstone, blowing away the fog that prevented him from remembering and making the physical pain from his burns much more bearable. He knew he was in his usual world now, the one with all his friends. But if he was here, and holding this material, feeling the oddly soft stone texture in his hands, then that meant the other odd world was real and it wasn't just a figment of his imagination that he was visiting in his dreams. But didn't that also make him seem insane? Dangerous even if this place was real? He couldn't tell Techno and Phil just yet... they might not understand... "No, I can't remember. Sorry..." Ranboo lied, feeling uncomfortable when Techno gave him a look, knowing something was off and that Ranboo might not be telling it quite how it was. He sighed in relief when Techno didn't say anything though, just nodding in reply to what Ranboo had said.

"Endstone." Phil repeated thoughtfully, staring blankly at the teenager, clearly not actually seeing him as he was lost in thought. "End...stone. End. _End_... ender? Endermen... end... there's got to be a link there... between endermen and the fact that it's called endstone." Phil suddenly paused, a thought occurring to him. "How do you know that it's called endstone Ranboo?"

Ranboo frowned, looking between the two men. "It... it told me? Like that voice in your head that tells you what a block is when you discover it for the first time... it happens to everyone... doesn't it?"

Techno and Phil exchanged another glance, it was starting to make Ranboo uncomfortable now.

"No Ranboo, no it doesn't." Phil said, clearly thinking hard again.

Ranboo froze, feeling vulnerable and maybe even slightly scared now he knew this.

Did this make him dangerous?

Was he going to get kicked out?

What if Techno and Phil thought he was making stuff up?

Was he dangerous?

No... surely not, he couldn't be... right?

He was Ranboo, just Ranboo. He'd never hurt anyone intentionally, Phil and Techno must know that...

"Calm down Ranboo, it's okay. I can feel your stress and it's making the voices go crazy." Techno muttered, immediately stopping Ranboo's mind from whirling. 

Techno grimaced, he was starting to get a headache.

_Poor Ranboo!_

_EEEEEEEEEE_

_Danger?_

_Ranboo in danger?_

_Hurtboo?_

_Stressboo?_

_eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_

_Hug him!_

_HUG!_

_Ranboo!_

_poor baby_

_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

_hybrid powers?  
_

_ranboo_

_RANBOO_

Techno stood up suddenly and strode over to the spruce table, banging his fists on it and hissing, "Shut up! I'm trying to think!"

_BLOOD!_

_eeeeeeeeee_

_Give Ranboo a hug Tech!_

_Dadza?_

_Sssssh! You're all being too loud, i'm trying to sleep_

_Ranboo?!_

"You okay Tech?" Phil's strong steady voice cut through the chaos inside of Techno's head.

He grunted, tuning out the voices responding to Phil's voice and turned back to see Ranboo and Phil staring at him in concern.

_eeeeeeeeeeeeee_

_Dadza!_

_Dadza_

_dadza_

_Phil_

_DADZA_

_PHILZA!!!!!_

He sighed, "I think it's because you're half enderman Ranboo-"

_cool_

_do you think he can teleport?_

_i'm hungry_

_me too_

_anyone have snacks?_

_ranboo has enderman powers?_

_EEEE_

"-because you're a hybrid. Have you always been able to do it?"

Ranboo nodded.

"So maybe it's like a level up thing as you get older, the silktouch hands only became a thing recently right?" Ranboo nodded again. "So maybe you'll be able to do other things in the future." Techno queried, sighing when the voices once again became louder.

_awesome_

_whoever stole my fucking chips better give them back right now_

_YOOO DO YOU THINK HE CAN TELEPORT??!_

_Powerboo_

_main character moment_

_teleportation?_

_Bruuuhh_

_RANBOO_

"That actually makes sense." Phil muttered. "It's like your need to be warm to be comfortable or being naturally better at fighting..."

Techno didn't quite appreciate Phil for sharing this information about him in front of Ranboo.

Ranboo was now saw without the blanket on his lap, his knees pulled up to his chest, "Do you think I'll be able to teleport when I'm older?"

"Maybe. It would make you powerful though, so if you can you'd need to be careful who you trust with that information." Phil replied, his voice slightly dark. "There are people on this server who would take advantage of it, even if one of them is behind bars. We all know that that's only temporary, and that for some reason he's choosing to stay there."

_Dre?_

_BLOOD!_

_Go help dre Techno!_

_:(_

_help dream!!_

_no! Dream makes Ranboo sad_

_Ranboo_

_DREAM_

_TOMMY_

_DRE HURT TOMMY_

_blood for the blood god!_

_dream hurt tommy!  
_

_HURT TOMMY!_

_And Ranboo!!!_

_DREAM!!!_

Techno closed his eyes, taking some deep breathes as the voices got more frenzied at the mention of his old friend.

"So if you do ever learn how to teleport, I'd only tell the people you'd trust with your life. Because as of at the moment, no one can leave this server..." Phil finished.

Ranboo nodded, his body feeling cold at the idea he might be in danger in the future for things that were out of his hands. 

Nobody noticed that Ranboo's injuries had started rapidly healing themselves the moment he made contact with the endstone.

* * *

While this was happening, Sam was attempting to convince Tommy to come with him to Snowchester.

"Come on Tommy, you can't stay mad at Tubbo forever."

"Can and will, Big Man."

Sam sighed, rubbing a hand across his face in annoyance at Tommy's stubbornness. 

"Please Tommy? Please just try? For me?" 

Tommy sighed, giving Sam a look. "No."

"Tommy listen to me. I know Tubbo hurt you, I know you hurt Tubbo." Tommy scowled. "But you know what else I know? I know that you two need to make up, because whether you like it or not, the longer you leave it the worse you're going to feel. You need to give each other a chance."

Tommy grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like his was mockingly imitating Sam.

"Fine. But if Tubbo's a dick then I'm leaving." Tommy conceded, his British accent becoming stronger in annoyance as he glared at the slightly shorter man.

"Thank you Tommy."

"He won't want to see me."

Sam smiled sadly, "You might be surprised."

The pair started walking towards Snowchester, Tommy dragging his feet and sulking. 

The teen had put on a bit of weight since he had started talking to Sam, starting to look slightly less like a strong gust of wind could blow him away as Sam's regular reminders to take care of himself where possible were starting to remind him what it was like to have a schedule. Tommy had started eating lunch with Sam everyday. It might only be one meal, but it was huge progress and Sam was so immensely proud of him for being able to make that progress. He had told him as such, resulting in a carrot being thrown at his face and a blushing Tommy who was trying to hide his grin. 

"THE MOON LANDING WAS FAKE!" Sam heard a familiar accented voice shout in the distance and he grinned, turning and waving at Ponk, who was sat on top of a tree in the distance, waving madly at them.

"What the fuck?" Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just Ponk being Ponk." Sam grinned, his mood significantly lifted as they continued on their way, briefly bumping into Antfrost. Sam noticed his pink eyes and squared his shoulders into a defensive stance, bringing Tommy protectively closer to his side as they passed him, feeling the way the man's eyes followed them until they were out of sight. Tommy must have felt it too because he didn't complain about how Sam had pulled him closer, like he needed protecting (which in Sam's eyes he did), when he usually would have gotten annoyed.

When they were far enough away, Sam let Tommy step away from him and continue ranting about the Avengers as they walked. He noticed that Tommy was rolling his shoulders again, a habit he had taken to recently, the movement becoming more and more common - especially when the boy was feeling any sort of negative emotion like fear or anger. Sam wondered if it was purely linked to PTSD and anxiety or if there was more to it... was it maybe something to do with the phantom pair of wings that he may or may not have seen that one time depending on how reliable he thought his eyes were?

The pair continued on their way until the stone wall that surrounded Snowchester came into view and then Tommy hesitated, his eyes holding an emotion that even Sam couldn't quite read. 

Sam heard the sound of Tubbo's laughter before he saw him. He and Tommy rounded the edge of where the wall petered off to find Tubbo and Jack laughing at something Purpled had said. _What was Purpled doing here? Why was he suddenly everywhere?_

"Tubbo!" Sam called out, causing the teenager to turn to his voice with a massive grin on his face, his brunette hair flopping into his face as he did so and his expression excited to show Sam the latest redstone project he was working on. The two were close, Sam's passion being building and redstone and Tubbo's being similar. Sam considered him a younger brother and regretted not talking to him as much as he usually would recently, having been too wrapped up in the issue with who or what was trying to break into the prison, Dream and his mind games, and trying to help Tommy. It left him feeling guilty when he realised he should have made more time for Tubbo too, especially as the boy was struggling. Sam knew that, and spying the dark circles under Tubbo's eyes told him just how well Tubbo was doing, he felt terrible for not being around as much as he felt he should have been.

Tommy almost faltered when they both saw Tubbo's expression drop the moment he realised Sam wasn't alone and who exactly the second person with him was.

"Sam?" Tubbo questioned, trying and failing to show any emotion.

Tommy's face was unreadable, his expression a cold stony mask and void of all emotions. It was the same expression that Technoblade had had when Tommy had left him to fight off everyone by himself in the blown up community house, joining Tubbo instead. Sam suspected it was a face that all members of the family possessed, one they automatically wore in situations where they were feeling too much and wished they weren't.

"Hey Tubbo, how you doing?" Sam said, approaching the trio and ignoring the awkward tension between Tommy and Tubbo and how Jack was slowly attempting to back into his house discretely. Purpled was monitoring the situation as closely as he was from where he was sat on top of a small stone archway that seemingly led into a dead end in the hill - a small alcove behind the potato patch.

"Er- fine." Tubbo replied, avoiding eye contact with Tommy as the taller boy glared at him. "Why is er... why is _he_ here, Big Man?"

They all noticed the way Tubbo refused to say Tommy's name.

Sam opened his mouth to answer, only to be beaten to it by Tommy.

"Trust me, I don't want to be here anymore than you want to see me." He muttered bitterly, causing Purpled to tense as the tension rose.

Tubbo finally made eye contact with Tommy and spat with so much venom that in genuinely surprised Sam and Purpled, "You're right. I don't want to see you. So fucking leave."

Tommy almost flinched but instead drew himself up to his full height and turned to look at Sam, who was watching the pair with a saddened look in his eyes.

"See? I told you he wouldn't want to see me." Tommy went to leave only for Sam to stop him by putting a gentle hand on his arm.

Purpled watched with interest as the tall teenager immediately came to a halt, despite the fact that Sam wasn't physically restraining him. _Interesting_.

"Usually I'd let you leave Tommy," Sam said, putting his other hand on Tubbo's arm and guiding the reluctant pair slightly away from Purpled and Jack Manifold (who was clearly eavesdropping through his front door). "But you two need to sort this out, because it's only hurting both of you. So we need to fix this, say what you want to say, all those emotions you're both bottling up need to be let out, whether you need to scream or shout or cry, because otherwise you're both going to become more resentful and it'll only hurt you more."

Both teens stood in silence, refusing to be the first to speak.

Sam sighed, he felt like a teacher trying to get toddlers to make up... if the toddlers had trauma...

"Who's going first?" Sam asked when neither boy said anything.

Tubbo seemed to realise that Sam wasn't letting them go until they made up or at least spoke.

"Fine. I will."

Sam nodded, "Tommy, don't interrupt while he's speaking okay? You can answer after."

"But-" Sam gave him a stern look and Tommy stopped protesting, crossing his arms as he went back sullen silence.

Tubbo took a deep breath, looking away from Tommy. "You're a dick Tommy."

"Oi-"

"Sam said you weren't allowed to interrupt!"

"That was before you insulted me to my face you wanker!"

Sam sighed... maybe the arguing was a good sign? It sounded like their old arguments they used to have, their playful ones when they-

"SHUT UP TOMMY! LET ME SPEAK FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!"

Definitely not.

Tommy visibly flinched this time, effectively silenced by Tubbo, who was now seething and glaring at Tommy with as much venom as Tommy had been glaring at him earlier.

"YOU ARE A DICK! I CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE YOU HESITATED WHEN DREAM THREATENED TO KILL ME IF YOU DIDN'T GIVE HIM THE DISCS. WHAT THE FUCK TOMMY? YOU HESITATED! WHAT SORT OF PERSON HESITATES WHEN SOMEONE THREATENS TO KILL THEIR BEST FRIEND?"

Tommy opened his mouth to defend himself and then closed it when he saw the look Sam gave him.

"I WAS READY TO DIE FOR YOU TOMMY!" Tubbo screamed, his voice wavering. Sam could see Purpled watching them, and knew he could hear the hurt in Tubbo's shouts, the loudness of his tone carrying over to the teen. "I WAS PREPARED TO DIE FOR YOU IN THAT BUNKER! And you almost sacrificed me for some stupid discs..."

"YOU EXILED ME TUBBO! WHAT SORT OF FUCKING FRIEND DOES THAT?"

"I WAS UNDER SO MUCH PRESSURE TOMMY! WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?!"

"NOT FUCKING EXILED YOU!"

"YOU'RE A DICKHEAD AND I HATE YOU!"

"FUCK OFF, I HATE YOU MORE."

Sam felt like this argument was getting more and more childlike despite the fact that the pair were sort of working out their issues... 

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN VISIT ME! YOU LEFT ME OUT THERE WITH DREAM!"

"DID YOU EVER CONSIDER THE FACT THAT WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO VISIT YOU? DID THAT THOUGHT EVER OCCUR TO YOU IN THAT BIG HEAD OF YOURS?"

Okay, Sam took it back, they weren't working anything out. He tried to intervened but the pair completely ignored him. "Boys-"

"WELL RANBOO MANAGED TO VISIT, SURELY MY BEST FRIEND COULD HAVE FOUND A WAY!"

"AND LOOK HOW WELL THAT TURNED OUT FOR HIM? HAVE YOU SEEN RANBOO RECENTLY?"

The pairs screaming had attracted a bit of an audience. Purpled, Jack, Charlie Slimecicle, Foolish and Puffy were watching the pair shout at each other as Sam tried to intervene and calm them down, varying degrees of pity and sadness in their eyes. 

"YEAH I HAVE, HE SEEMS COMPLETELY FINE!"

Tubbo scoffed scornfully. "AND YOU'D KNOW IF HE WASN'T, WOULDN'T YOU? BECAUSE CLEARLY YOU AND RANBOO BONDED SO MUCH WHILE YOU WERE EXILED!"

Both Sam and Tommy heard the jealousy in Tubbo's tone.

Sam wondered how the hell this argument had suddenly become about Ranboo.

"YEAH WE DID! AND YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE HE WAS THE ONLY THING KEEPING ME SANE OUT THERE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE STUCK WITH SOMEONE AS FUCKING CRAZY AND SADISTIC AS DREAM? HE GETS IN YOUR HEAD TUBBO. HE MESSES YOU UP!"

"AND YOU MESSED ME UP TOMMY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" 

Tommy paused, not realising Tubbo had eventually visited Logstedshire, not knowing Tommy was long gone by that point.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD AND I THOUGHT IT WAS MY FAULT!" Tubbo was crying now. "IMAGINE HOW I FELT WHEN YOU TURNED UP, ALIVE, WITH TECHNOBLADE, THE PERSON WHO _KILLED ME_ , AND HELD CONNOR FOR RANSOM! AND THEN AS IF IT COULDN'T GET WORSE I FOUND OUT YOU WERE WORKING AGAINST L'MANBERG?!"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TURN THAT ON ME TUBBO! WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? LET DREAM FUCKING KILL ME WITH HIS MIND GAMES? IT'S NOT LIKE ANYONE ELSE WAS GOING TO HELP ME! IT'S NOT LIKE I COULD COME BACK TO L'MANBERG WITHOUT BEING HUNTED DOWN! DID YOU WANT ME TO BE ALONE OUT THERE, ISOLATED? DID YOU WANT ME TO HAVE JUMPED FROM THAT TOWER TUBBO? IS THAT WHAT THIS IS? DID YOU WANT ME DEAD?"

Silence hit the trio as Tommy's words hung in the air like a blade hanging over the last thread of their friendship.

Tubbo now had the power to fix or permanently ruin their friendship.

"Maybe I did. Because none of this would have happened without you! None of this would have happened if you had just given up the discs." Tubbo muttered quietly, and Sam could feel Tommy's heart splintering as the last of their friendship shattered. "Maybe Wilbur would still be here."

Tommy stood in shock as what Tubbo had said fully hit him, the words washing over him again and again. 

_Maybe I did._

_Maybe I did._

_Maybe I did._

_None of this would have happened without you._

_Maybe Wilbur would still be here._

_Maybe Wilbur would still be here._

_Wilbur..._

"Tommy-" Sam finally managed to say hoarsely, his voice now heard easily as the shouting had stopped. He reached out to comfort the boy only for Tommy to shrug his hands of angrily. "Tommy he didn't mean-"

_Maybe Wilbur would still be here._

"NO! GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF ME SAM!" Tommy shouted, backing away angrily. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ANYWAY! I DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS AND THIS IS YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"

_Maybe Wilbur would still be here._

"Tommy please-" Sam tried again, watching as Tommy started crying.

_None of this would have happened without you._

Tubbo's mouth fell open slightly as he seemed to realise how much Tommy cared for him, how deep their friendship had run. _Tommy didn't cry_.

Puffy had her hand over her mouth, completely horrified as Foolish gripped her other hand tightly, face pale. Charlie was confused, not having been here long enough to understand their history, and Purpled's face was ashen. Jack was showing no emotion, his face blank.

_Maybe Wilbur would still be here._

"FUCK ALL OF YOU!" Tommy cried, his pain bleeding into his voice as it cracked. 

_Maybe I did._

He was gone before Sam could stop him, his enderpearl landing far away as he ran.

Sam turned back to Tubbo, who was staring blankly at where Tommy had been, silent warm tears searing tracks down his cheeks.

"Tubbo." Sam muttered, opening his arms in offer of a hug. Tubbo collapsed into his arms, sobs racking his body.

"I didn't mean it." The brunette sobbed into Sam's chest, causing Sam to tighten his arms and hold him closer. "I didn't mean it I didn't mean it I didn't mean it I didn't mean it. It wasn't his fault, none of it was his fault. I don't want him dead. I didn't mean it I didn't mean it..."

"Ssssh, it's okay Tubbo. I know. I know you didn't mean it." Sam muttered into his hair as the boy collapsed, slowly sinking to the floor with him and holding him close. 

As Sam held the sobbing boy close, the other gone and probably hurting by himself, he wondered how it was possible that he had fucked up so badly.

* * *

I find writing dialogue so difficult and sometimes i feel like it comes out all cheesy lol (talking about Sam & Dream interactions). Anyways yeh...


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood, violence, death
> 
> again please tell me if i missed anything

"Sam? Sam are you in there?"

"Puffy did you find him?"

"I think he's in here. Sam?!"

Sam groaned.

"Tommy! Tommy come here, I found him. He's in there."

"Fuck. Coming Puffy."

The voices sounded far away, like they were underwater. 

Sam blinked a few times, opening his eyes but not seeing any difference.

It was pitch black, so dark that he couldn't see anything.

_Huh?_

His head hurt, and his body hurt even more.

_Where was he?_

Sam slowly reached out a hand and was met with a familiar texture. Obsidian.

_What happened?_

"Can you get him out Puffy?" Said a panicked boy's voice.

It was familiar. 

Who did that voice belong to again?

Sam wasn't sure, all he could focus on was the fact that he was tired and hungry and he hurt all over.

_Why did he hurt?_

"Hurry up Puffy! He's already been in there all night!"

"Tommy! I'm going as fast as I can. Go back to keeping an eye out for Bad and Ant." A woman's voice replied, sounding frustrated and out of breath... Sam concentrated and remembered the name that went with the voice. Captain Puffy. "If they find us then we're screwed."

_Tommy._

_That was the familiar voice._

Sam frowned. How had he forgotten that?

Suddenly light blinded him and Sam groaned, squeezing his eyes shut and bringing his hands to his face, hiding it from the light like a child. 

"Oh fuck." Puffy muttered when she saw him. "Shit Sam, you look terrible."

"ThanksPuff-" Sam groaned, his voice cutting off as she hoisted him to his feet and pulled him out of the obsidian box he'd been in. The movement made his head throb in pain.

He still didn't remember how he ended up there. 

Puffy stumbled under his weight when his legs gave out underneath him.

Suddenly, someone was there on his other side, slipping an arm around his waist and catching him before they both fell.

"Sam? Shit. What the fuck happened? Are you okay?" 

Tommy.

That was Tommy holding him up as they carried him away, his feet dragging as he tried and failed to walk steadily. 

"Idonknow." Sam's words were blurring together, almost like he was drunk. "Armhurts."

Tommy looked down at his arm and paled, swearing under his breath. "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck."

Puffy looked over and went pale too. "Shit Sam."

Sam frowned, looking down at where it hurt, surprised to see that his skin was torn and bleeding. "Huh." Sam slurred.

"What happened?" Tommy asked again.

"Imalright." Sam slurred.

Tommy started rambling nervously about Avengers Endgame. Sam nodded along, the red fog that had been clouding his mind slowly receding and letting him think.

A small part of him didn't want Tommy seeing him like this, he was supposed to be helping Tommy and at the moment he was doing the exact opposite. First the Tubbo thing (which Sam blamed entirely on himself) and now this. He wasn't stupid even in his current half delirious state, he could still feel and hear the panic radiating from the boy.

Slowly he started to remember what had happened as Puffy and Tommy led him back to his house.

He had been on his way back from Snowchester with Puffy, having tucked Tubbo into bed when he had passed out from crying and leaving him in the care of a solemn looking Ranboo (who had arrived about an hour or two after Tommy and Tubbo's argument, his face falling when he discovered what had happened), both of them feeling disheartened, their moods only worsening when they bumped into BadBoyHalo and Antfrost doing... whatever they did now they were under the influence of The Egg.

The two had basically forced Puffy and Sam to come with them where they proceeded to have an the biggest argument he had ever had with them. Apparently, Tommy had visited the egg with them at some point, and he was immune. Neither Sam nor Puffy knew how they missed him visiting, but apparently he had. Bad and Ant said the egg wanted him dead, that Punz agreed. The situation had escalated until... until they tricked Sam and trapped him down a pit above The Egg, claiming that if he spent enough time with it he would grow to love it. He didn't know what had happened to Puffy after they closed up the hole, the last thing he remembered being Puffy shouting as she escaped, Ant and Bad hunting her down and leaving him stuck with the egg. 

"Howdidyou... get away Puffy?" Sam asked, his words becoming slightly more coherent.

Puffy glanced down at him as she helped him sit up in the boat as Tommy started rowing them in the direction Puffy told him to go. "You remember?"

Somehow they'd traveled through the Nether and through the portal to his house without him noticing. 

Sam nodded, flinching when the movement hurt his head still.

"It took awhile, and a lot of luck." Puffy said, her jaw set and her eyes hard. "That's why I couldn't come back for you until now."

Sam understood.

Two of their closest friends had betrayed them... tried to convert Sam and kill Puffy and Tommy. 

Where did you even go from that?

Sam must have blanked out for a bit then, because the next thing he remembered was being helped into bed by Puffy while Tommy rushed off to fetch Fran, whose name he had apparently been muttering in distress. 

Puffy collapsed into the chair next to him as Fran came bounding into the room, followed by Tommy, and jumped onto his bed, snuggling up next to him and placing her big head on his chest.

Her fur was soft, Sam decided as he placed a hand on her back. He liked it.

Sam attempted to mutter something about neither of them needing to stay before he passed out, exhausted from spending so long in close proximity to The Egg.

So what he didn't see was Tommy passing out on the end of his bed not long after him, the teenager refusing to leave until he was sure Sam was alright, and he didn't see Puffy getting up to get Tommy a blanket when he was asleep, nor did he see how Fran didn't sleep the entire time the three were asleep, keeping an eye on her human and his friends, all of them passed out in his bedroom.

* * *

Purpled had received the message from Ponk a few hours ago. 

It had merely said:

_Have a business offer for you. Will pay well for job well done as long as it's done discretely. Be at the usual place at 6pm, dramatic entrance would be best protocol. Be scary, they're going to try and bully or trick you into either doing it for them for free or doing it for less. Stand your ground, be on guard._

_P.S. Don't be alarmed when my eyes are red, they're contacts._

_\- P_

Purpled knew it was from Ponk because Ponk was the only one who knew how to contact him directly.

So that was how Purpled ended up dressing in netherite enforced, purple dyed leather armour, adding his long plum coloured cloak over it - his fancy one with the enchantments, not his patched travelling one. He finished attaching his axe and bow to his back, both of them clipping onto the leather strap that went diagonally across his chest and back, pots of glowing potions hanging from the front of it and his weapons attached to the back. He kept his sword in his hand, knowing it would be best to have a weapon on show at a meeting like this.

He waited in the shadows, sat on a small ledge in the roof of his large cave as he watched Ponk row a boat along the small stream that led into what they jokingly referred to as their "evil lair". 

Antfrost, BadBoyHalo and... Punz. 

His stomach tightened slightly at the sight of his older brother. Purpled hadn't seen the man since he had returned, making sure to stay out of the mercenary's way. The two weren't on the best terms.

Now he was slightly pissed at Ponk for not warning him.

Ponk was one of the very few people who knew the two were related, the least he could have done would have been to warn him.

Purpled watched from the shadows as the three crowded around Ponk, noting the slightly scared look in Ponk's eyes. He wanted to reveal himself, but he couldn't until Ponk did the signal. That was a rule, a rule that Ponk would get mad at him for breaking if he entered sooner than Ponk wanted him to.

"There's no one here Ponk." BadBoyHalo said, his voice echoing.

"You've scammed us." Antfrost added.

Punz stayed silent.

Purpled had already noticed the changes in the three. 

Bad's glowing eyes had changed colour ever so slightly, as had the brim of his hood. Ant had pink eyes. Punz had red eyes. All of them had something off about them, something in the way they stood, in the way they talked.

These weren't the normal Bad, Ant and Punz.

"Trust me he's here." Ponk replied, glancing over to the other side of the cave where it was lit up in preparation for his arrival. "I need to do the signal."

A dark expanse stretched between the two light sources, something Purpled had done on purpose. It made it more dramatic, more intimidating - although he assumed he was going to have a hard time intimidating these three.

Punz and Ant scoffed, Bad rolling his eyes as Ponk did the signal. 

_About time_.

Purpled stealthily moved of his ledge, jumping off and landing on the floor, making no sound, not even knocking off a pebble.

"There's still nobody here, Ponk. I'm starting to think you were just tricking us." Ant said as Punz threateningly placed a hand on the netherite sword attached to his belt.

"No! No he's coming. I swear!" Purpled could hear Ponk starting to panic now, clearly thinking Purpled hadn't come. "Maybe I did the wrong signal."

"This better be good." Purpled said with an over exaggerated exasperated sigh, relaxing his body and doing his best to appear annoyed at Ponk for summoning him, like he hadn't had warning they were coming beforehand and he'd been interrupted in the middle of something.

Punz, Ant and Bad spun to face him, Ponk letting out an audible sigh of relief. 

There was a brief silence, during which Purpled noted the way the trio observed him in surprise (clearly not expecting him) and how Punz's face flashed with shock and then anger and then something else which Purpled didn't catch before his face relaxed into a smug expression.

It pissed Purpled off.

"Hi Purpled." Punz grinned, the first words he had said since entering.

Purpled ignored his older brother and focused on Bad, who let out a satisfied noise, "There is someone here. Hello."

Purpled forced his tone to be relaxed, leaning against the wall casually, knowing he looked intimidating (if he did say so himself), "Hey, what's up."

Bad made a suspicious noise. "Hmm. Where'd you come from?"

"Doesn't matter." 

"There's no ways in." Bad countered.

Purpled had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the man. 

_Obviously there would be more ways into the place they were meeting for a job like this, had whatever changed their eye colour changed their intelligence level to idiot too?_

Purpled ignored him and tilted his head towards Ponk, his purple eyes meeting Ponk's red ones... just like Ponk had warned him they would be, "So Ponk, you said they have a deal for me right?"

Bad bristled slightly at being ignored but didn't say anything when Ponk said, "Yeah. It's pretty good, I've got free Starbucks for a longtime!"

Purpled resisted the urge to grin, knowing that Ponk was just trying to annoy the trio as Starbucks didn't actually exist on this server. 

"Alright. Okay." Purpled glanced between the trio, eyes landing on Bad once again. "So tell me whose in charge here."

Punz and Antfrost both looked to Bad, who glanced at them before asking, "How much did Ponk tell you about our... uh, arrangement."

 _Nothing..._ but Purpled wasn't going to tell them that.

"You didn't answer my question. Who is in charge?" Purpled asked again, his tone harder this time.

"Doesn't matter whose in charge." Purpled would have to disagree. "The one whose in charge isn't here right now." Bad replied.

_Shifty._

"M'kay."

"But we represent them."

"What's the deal?" Purpled was directing his questions at Bad now, mainly because despite what he claimed, he appeared to be the one leading right now as he was the one doing all the speaking.

"We uh... Ponk told us that you could take care of somebody..." Bad let his voice trail off. "And we need you to do a task dealing with a problematic individual..."

Purpled felt his blood run cold.

_Ah, so it was that type of job._

He made eye contact with Ponk and he knew they could all see the way his fingers tapped rhythmically against his thigh. Punz knew he did that when he couldn't sit still, usually when he was nervous or scared or angry. He could have exploited that and it surprised Purpled when he stayed completely silent. 

What "problematic individual" did they want gone?

_Tommy? Sam? Technoblade? Dream? Tubbo maybe? Who else could they consider problematic?_

Purpled internally scoffed, he might be able to fight the infamous Blood God and whatever the hell Dream was for a bit, but he wouldn't be able to kill them. Nobody was even sure if they could be killed, the saying "Technoblade never dies" hadn't come from nowhere.

"Okay..." Purpled let the word drag out. "Who do you have in mind?"

"Do you know of one Captain Puffy?" Bad asked.

Purpled barely managed to keep his surprise off his face as his tapping stopped. 

Of all the people he had been expecting, Puffy had been pretty much at the bottom of the list.

_What the hell could she have done to make them want her dead?_

He knew Punz noticed that his fingers had stopped tapping.

_Fuck. Why did he have to be here? He knew practically all of Purpled's tells..._

"I do... I do." He again let his words drag out.

Bad took a few steps closer, followed automatically by Punz and Ant, "Do you mind if we come a little closer, we want to-"

Ponk visibly tensed behind them as Purpled shot into a defensive stance so quickly that it startled everyone in the room, raising his sword (which had been hanging lazily from his hand before then) and his free hand hovering over the potions, ready to be used if needed to, "No. Stop."

"No?" Bad questioned testily.

"Stop exactly where you are, right there." Purpled said threateningly, his hand now resting on one of his potions.

Punz was watching him carefully, ready to warn his companions if he thought his brother was going to attack. 

"Right here? Oh... I see you're suited up..." Bad drawled as Purpled willed the enchantment on his armour that made the dyed leather ripple into it's netherite state to activate. His purple leather armour now the same netherite that the trio wore. The only one who wasn't wearing netherite now was Ponk, who was wearing an enchanted diamond helmet and enchanted diamond boots. "Fancy."

Purpled grinned nastily (netherite sword still raised defensively), his lips pulling back from his teeth in a sneer, "Thanks. Something I created during my travels. You learn some interesting things on the road."

Everyone heard the threat in his words, the warning.

"Ponk come here." Purpled summoned, maintaining eye contact with Bad while also watching Ant and his brother out of the corner of his eye to make sure they didn't try something.

"Okay okay." Ponk replied easily, and strolled casually past the tense trio towards Purpled.

"What do these guys want?" Purpled asked once Ponk was on his side of the darkness, on the edge of his circle of light. 

"Look, look." Ponk sighed. "These guys have a lot of money okay?"

Purpled nodded and Ponk rested his hands on his shoulder, forcing Purpled to look at him (although the teen was still hyper aware of the other three in the room), "Okay look, they might have trapped me down this cold thing for a few days." Purpled gave him a questioning look and Ponk responded with one that said they'd talk about it later. "But it's fine I promise. My eyes look funny, but I can explain that later. These guys have money Purp..." 

Purpled gave him a look for using his nickname before rolling his eyes at the man and turning back to Bad, Ant and Punz, gesturing for them to continue. "What do we have in mind for payment because I'm not doing this for cheap"

Purpled was the best of the best and he knew it. He'd never been caught on a job and always covered up his trail. No one ever found out his involvement or the person's who he was working for...

"Payment. Payment isn't really an issue." Bad replied instantly, glancing between Punz and Ant again. "We can pay you pretty much anything you desire."

Big claim.

_What made him so confident that he could actually do it?_

Bad held up a netherite ingot, "For now though, this can be a down payment." 

Purpled scoffed, picking it up from where Bad had rolled it to him. 

"I'm going to need a lot more than this." He rolled his eyes as he inspected it, making sure it wasn't fake.

You could never be too sure.

"No no no no, that's just an initial payment." Bad assured once Purpled had decided that nothing was amiss and accepted the netherite. "A show of good will-"

"How do I know I can trust you?" Purpled interrupted, making Bad frown in annoyance and Punz rolled his eyes at his childlike games. They didn't like that Purpled was being so difficult, interrupting Bad so often and being borderline rude in general.

Bad laughed for the first time since entering the cave.

It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"Oh you can trust us Purpled. Do we look like we'd scam you?" Purpled resisted the strong urge to say yes. "I mean, Ponk's the one who scams!"

_Also true._

"But Ponk's not the one doing this business arrangement, so you don't have to worry about that." Bad smiled, glowing white eyes maintaining eye contact with the teen.

Purpled thought this entire thing felt way more shifty than his usual jobs. 

There was definitely more going on behind the scenes that he'd have to figure out before properly accepting the payments, that way he could return it if he decided to refuse the job for whatever reason. 

"Okay, well, I will say you've piqued my interest." Purpled admitted, and they had, although probably not in the way they thought. "So I have to kill Captain Puffy, huh?"

"Well..." Bad started.

"Not necessarily..." Antfrost interrupted, quieting down when Bad spoke.

"On that note, what do you guys think, Punz, Ant?" Bad asked, turning to the two.

The first time he'd asked for their opinion, Purpled noted.

"We don't actually have to have Puffy killed..." Purpled heard Bad mutter to the two (they were now stood together talking in hushed voices), "because if she spends enough time with The Egg in the box then Captain Puffy will come to love The Egg too and be on our side anyway right?"

He heard Ant make noises of agreement, Punz agreeing as well a few seconds later.

Egg?

Again, this felt weird, no matter how much they were paying him.

"Give her the Sam treatment." Ant muttered, Bad agreeing with him.

Sam treatment? But he had just seen Sam yesterday at Snowchester during the argument with Tubbo and Tommy... what where they talking about?

"We don't want you to kill her," Bad suddenly said, pulling Purpled out of his thoughts. "I'll give you a set of coordinates and I want you to take her there." Purpled didn't like Bad's tone. "There's a container there I want you to drop her into and if you can't get her there, then you can kill her. We'll pay you afterwards."

"It'll cost more for me to transport her alive. It's much more work and effort for me." Purpled said.

"Oh naturally naturally." Bad tutted. 

"Okay." Purpled finally caved. "Consider it a deal." 

He was going to do more research before he actually did anything...

"Oh really? Okay. Perfect." Bad grinned happily. "Alright that works for me?"

Ant and Punz agreed.

"And then after the job is done... we have a uh... _friend_ , we want to introduce you to." Bad finished, putting extra emphasis on the word "friend". 

"M'kay." Purpled muttered, having absolutely no intention of going with them to meet anyone. "Keep me posted. Until then, I kindly ask you to leave unless you're invited. Ponk, show them out please."

Ponk nodded and headed back to the boat in the water, the three eventually following.

"Ponk, you're invited back anytime. I don't extend the same offer to the other three, if you need to contact me you can go through Ponk." Purpled said, watching as Ponk rowed them away until they were gone and his cave was secure again.

He sat down, placing his sword on the ground next to him as his armour rippled back into leather.

Boy did he have a lot to think about.

* * *

Ranboo must have fallen asleep.

He knew this because somehow he was back in the strange world, only this time he was looking out at that strange island he had seen in the distance. 

How was he going to get there?

He could always bridge across, but that would use so many blocks and it would ruin the strange, eerie beauty of the land. 

_If those possible teleportation powers could kick in around now that would be helpful._

Nothing happened, unsurprisingly. 

Ranboo looked around, wondering if there was anything that could help him get there or if he was just stuck on this one island forever.

Nothing had changed since the last time he had been here. The land was still made out of endstone, there were still strange purple plants growing every so often, there were still hundreds of endermen just roaming the land, there was still his armour, there was still a seemingly endless black void surrounding him and the land.

Hold on.

His armour.

Ranboo had spotted the glinting pieces of netherite armour just lying on the floor by one of the purple plants that he didn't want to touch in case he killed it or something - like how you weren't supposed to touch coral because then it couldn't survive and would die. 

He remembered now, he had taken his armour off last time because he... wait why had he taken his armour off?

Ranboo couldn't remember exactly why, it had been something stupid and small like one of the endermen had been giving him a funny look or something like that. He wasn't going to do it again, Ranboo thought to himself as he slipped back into it's enchanted safety, not after what had happened last time when he left the world without warning, leaving his armour behind and almost dying in the snow without the enchantments that protected his enderman-like sensitive skin. Not a mistake he would be making again anytime soon.

Once his armour was back on, Ranboo decided that maybe there was something along the sides of the floating island, or maybe even under it.

When he looked back at the decision he made to clamber along the edges of the floating island above an endless black void, he admitted it wasn't his brightest idea. But if he hadn't made that decision, he would most likely lived years of his life without knowing what he could do.

Ranboo was on the very final layer of endstone between him and the void when he slipped. His hands flailed wildly in a desperate attempt to find land, his long, almost claw-like nails eventually digging into the endstone, stopping his fall into the blackness below with a bone-jarring sudden jerk and gouging long lines into the ground as he slipped further. 

His lanky body was swinging above the void, the only thing between him and certain death was his rapidly loosening grip on the stone.

Ranboo had been certain he was about to die when he finally lost his grip, slowly free falling into inky blackness and waiting for the death message, his first life lost, to appear on the communicators that everyone kept on them (usually like a watch on their wrist or in their pocket) with a buzz. He could practically see it when he closed his eyes. _Ranboo fell into the void_. But it never came, and Ranboo started to wonder whether he was doomed to an eternity of falling.

_Man if only he could teleport right around now._

As soon as he thought it, he wasn't falling anymore. Ranboo stumbled at the sudden change in movement, tripping over his own feet and falling with a loud thud, purple particles flying off of him.

Holy cow!

_Holy cow. Holy cow. Holy cow._

_Did he just teleport?_

Ranboo sat on the endstone in shock, his two-toned hair now windswept from falling and apparently from... teleporting?

He was definitely in shock. That was probably why it took him so long to notice that he was no longer on the island he'd fallen from and now was instead sat staring at it from the one he'd seen in the distance.

_Well that was one, very terrifying way of travelling here._

Ranboo stood, brushing white dust off of him and shaking his limbs out, his body feeling weird from the _teleportation_. (Yes he was still freaking out about that.)

He took in his new surroundings. It was pretty much the same as the other island at first glance, except when you looked closer, you realised it wasn't.

The first thing he realised was that there were no endermen here roaming the land and chirping at each other. Really, that should have been his first indication that something about this island wasn't quite right. 

The second thing that he noticed was that the purple plants he had seen on the other island were dead. Vibrant purple now shriveled up, brown bleeding to black the more they decayed.

The final thing that he noticed, was the buildings in the distance.

And maybe Ranboo was just feeling dumb today, because the lack of endermen and the dead purple plants didn't warn him that something was very, _very_ wrong. 

He set off towards the buildings in a hurry, not noticing the black dust particles in the air or the too silent atmosphere or that the decaying plants got more and more frequent as he approached the buildings, too focused on maybe finding someone else who could tell him why he was here and where here even was.

Ranboo finally realised something was wrong when he reached the first line of small buildings and realised that they were eerily silent. He approached slowly, feeling apprehension starting to bubble in his gut. Something wasn't right.

Unfortunately, his apprehension only grew when he was near enough to see that the houses were charred, the purple material they were made out of clearly burnt, and the doors were either half-broken or completely gone, as if they had been kicked in. He gulped nervously but kept approaching, hesitating and then jolting to a sudden stop when he passed the first line of housing, hand flying to his mouth in shock and horror.

Ranboo was stood on top of a cliff, looking out over a mass expanse of waste land.

Below him was what had clearly once been a bustling, thriving city. Towers made out of purple bricks and obsidian framing and smooth glass would have spiraled into the sky, large houses made out of white marble and similar purple bricks floating in the sky around them and smaller houses made out of less fancy materials like wood and stone surrounding the edges of the city on the ground. In the center of all this there would have been a large castle, a magnificent one if the remains were anything to go by. Large obsidian pillars were constructed periodically around the edges on the city, their use unknown as they were now just a dark ominous presence that loomed over the broken city.

Now what looked like towers that had once twisted into the sky in an impressive way were broken and crumbling, abandoned with only charred frames remaining, large holes in their structures. The floating houses were just bases, similar holes burnt into them and their structures slowly collapsing. The houses below had been completely burnt to the ground, leaving behind layers of soot and the occasional wall or crooked house that had somehow survived, the only indications of what had once been. And the castle that had once stood proud in the center was now nothing but blackened walls and collapsing towers, half of the castle had collapsed in on itself.

Ranboo didn't think he wanted to know what horrors had occurred here. 

Suddenly this world felt a lot less safe.

He had to go down, explore the ruins.

_Maybe there was someone still down there?_

Ranboo knew there wasn't, even if he tried to convince himself otherwise. 

Whoever had done this had clearly left no soul alive, razing the city to the ground and leaving only shells of buildings behind. If someone could survive this, then they'd be impossibly dangerous and Ranboo wouldn't want to talk to them.

He carefully picked his way through the ruins, ignoring the pulling feeling in his gut that was telling him he was going in the right direction and stopping every so often to stare at another burnt community with sadness.

Black dust clung to him as he walked.

A burnt fountain there (he wondered what it had once run, as endermen obviously hated water... unless it wasn't endermen who used to live here). An abandoned shop on his left, a burnt park to his right, broken swings hanging from one chain and what had probably been this worlds equivalent to a grassy field now dead and covered in debris.

If Ranboo closed his eyes, he could almost imagine how it once looked, children playing in the park, laughing and shouting. The pillars surrounding the city had large crystals on them, providing the city and it's protector with accelerated healing and making the crops flourish. Ranboo didn't know how he knew that as he stood in the park as it had once been, watching people who looked like him, like him but without that unknown half of him... not fully endermen but more like human endermen. They looked human, except they all had inky black skin and green or purple eyes, all with black hair and with either purple particles emitting from them or small amounts of black smoke. Ranboo watched as a little girl wearing dirty denim dungarees with lots of patches on and a bright red t-shirt ran past him, her plaited black hair flying out behind her as she laughed, purple eyes glowing and small amounts of black smoke floating around her like endermen particles. 

_Were these his people?_

Violent orange flames suddenly flashed across his vision, smoke filling his nostrils as the kids laughter turned to screams, the people started running, crying for their families. Parents searched frantically for kids as the crystals suddenly exploded in sync, raining down fire and glass on the citizens of the city. Armoured warriors suddenly appeared out of nowhere to defend them, teleporting around Ranboo as he stumbled back in surprise. 

"The Queen! The Queen is coming!" Someone shouted to his left. "Hold the line until she arrives!"

It took a few minutes for Ranboo to realise they were talking in endermen, the familiar clicks and chirps filling his ears.

_His people._

A shadow passed over them and he looked up.

_Holy cow._

_HOLY COW!_

_That was a freakin dragon._

A cry or relief went up along the front lines as they cheered for the dragon.

"The Queen is here!" Someone shouted, and it was followed by screams and cheers.

The dragon landed in front of them, the flapping of her wings sending a gust of wind through Ranboo's hair as he watched, equal parts horrified and mesmerized, as she transformed into a woman wearing a crown and battle armour, a sword clutched in her hand and black hair cut short. She had green eyes and a dragon tattoo that stretched up the side of her face, shooting flame from it's mouth that curled around her slit eyebrow and the tail curled down the side of her neck.

"He's using fire. We can't fight against it with water without hurting our citizens. They need to be evacuated immediately." She directed in a voice that was full of command and authority. People scrambled to do as she said, running off into the city to start the evacuation. 

Her voice sounded familiar.

Like he had heard it a very long time ago.

"Karl!" She called and Ranboo blinked in surprise.

_Karl?_

Ranboo's mouth dropped open as Karl materialised out of thin air, a green and purple portal closing behind him, clearly confused.

He watched as Karl took in the scene and his face hardened instantly, turning to the Queen.

The Queen nodded at him with a sad look in her eyes. She removed the crown from her head, holding it in her hands. "We knew he would come Karl. Today is the day. You need to take him and run. Do whatever you need to do to get him out."

She was talking in English now.

Karl nodded and Ranboo watched as a tear fell down his cheek. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

The Queen smiled sadly, wiping away Karl's tears and pressing her crown into his hands. He heard her skin sizzle as she wiped away the tears but she didn't flinch. "You did so much Karl, helped us much more than you know. It was all borrowed time anyway."

Karl threw himself at her and she caught him, hugging him tightly. "You're like a son to me Karl." She whispered into his hair, and Karl visibly hugged her tighter. "Now go, get Ranboo and run. You must save him. Save my baby for me Karl."

Ranboo froze, his entire body stopping as he heard his name.

"I'll save him. I promise." Karl replied, finally disentangling from her arms with her crown in his hands.

The same crown that Ranboo was currently wearing on his head... 

But no. That was a Hypixel crown, won from his fighting in Skywars... Ranboo realised he'd never seen anyone else with a crown, even Purpled who was renowned for his bedwars skills... but he couldn't be... couldn't be... could he?

He watched as Karl disappeared into the city and the Queen transformed into a dragon once more, her wings beating as she flew into the sky and let lose a battle cry, the sound full of anger and rage and cutting through the panicked cries of her citizens.

The scene changed and suddenly he was watching Karl run through the halls of the castle, dodging screaming citizens as they fled. _His people_.

Karl burst into a large room, throwing the doors open and hurrying over to where a toddler with one red eye, one green, two-toned skin and two-toned hair was sat at the window, pressed up against it and crying for his mother as he watched the dragon swoop down over the city, clearly fighting someone who was out of view.

 _I_ _t was him_.

Karl rushed over to him, scooping toddler Ranboo into his arms. 

"Ranboo. Shhhh, shhhh it's okay. It's going to be okay." Karl cried, attempting to wipe away the tears that were running down Ranboo's cheeks. "Don't cry Ranboo, please don't. You'll hurt yourself."

Karl turned and fled from the castle, Ranboo clutched close to his chest.

Karl cried even more when the dragon let out a roar of pain and then burst into beams of light, the citizens of the city falling silent as they watched their Queen explode before tears and screams started up again, more frantic this time.

Ranboo knew that the Queen was now dead.

They had almost escaped and a strange green and purple portal like the one Karl had appeared from was starting to open up ahead of them when a figure wearing a long green cloak and a familiar smiley face mask appeared in front of them, blocking their way. He held duel blades in each hand, both covered in blood.

_The blood of his people._

_His people._

_Ranboo hadn't known there had been others like him._

The city was burning around them.

"DreamXD." Karl said, coming to a halt and protectively hugging the toddler closer. "Dream this isn't you. Fight it."

Ranboo watched in horror.

That was Dream?

He was confused, this must have happened years ago, so how were both Karl and Dream here looking the exact same as Ranboo knew them today?

"Karl just give me Ranboo and I'll let you go in peace. You know he can't survive. You've heard the prophecy." Dream laughed, although it sounded different, like there was more than one person speaking.

"Dream you know I can't do that." Karl replied, hugging Ranboo even closer as the screams of the people in the burning city slowly started to get cut off one by one as the city succumbed to flame.

"I am not the Dream you know of, Karl Jacobs. Give me the Ender Prince." Dream demanded, or DreamXD as Karl had called him.

Karl took a step back. 

"I'm sorry Dream." Karl whispered, and then he fell backwards through the portal that had opened up behind him.

Dream shouted in rage and jumped after him. But he was too slow, the portal closing up before he could make it.

Ranboo watched with wide eyes as he screamed in rage, before splitting and becoming more than one person.

Two Dreams now stood before him, one with a cold hard look in his eyes, and the other passed out in his arms. 

"Fuck." The one holding the unconscious Dream spat. There was something terrifying about how he stood, something almost... godlike...

Ranboo knew that this was DreamXD.

DreamXD looked at the burning city and turned to look exactly where Ranboo was stood.

He froze, he couldn't see him... right?

DreamXD smirked and saluted at him with two fingers, hoisting the unconscious Dream over his shoulder in a way that was similar to how Ranboo had seen Techno sling a sack of potatoes over his back. "I'll be waiting, Ender Prince."

And then he disappeared, taking the unconscious Dream with him.

Ranboo stumbled backwards, the burning city disappearing as he snapped out of the vision and fell into the dust and soot that was the present. His reality. 

His crown tumbled off his head and he reached for it, tears pouring down his face and burning his skin.

This had been his home. 

He had had a family.

"Don't cry Ranboo, please don't. You'll hurt yourself."

Ranboo froze and turned, scrambling to his feet and clutching his crown, _his mother's crown_ , in his hands.

A man wearing a multicoloured jumper and holding a book stood behind him.

A very familiar man.

"Karl?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explanation for whats going on with Ranboo and the End and some other stuff in this chapter so it'd not confusing hopefully?  
> 1\. So Ranboo can teleport to the End whenever, but because he's only done it while sleeping he doesn't realise it. So he is actually there and does disappear in the overworld when he's there.  
> 2\. When he's there or in contact with something from the End his enderman side is heightened, meaning he heals faster or can teleport for example. Ranboo won't remember that he can teleport when he returns to the overworld until later on.  
> 3\. DreamXD is Dream but immortal and basically creative mode which is why he can teleport between worlds and basically merge him and Dream into one person  
> 4\. Karl's time travel enables him to travel between the worlds without the portals being activated but he can't control it. He just get's summoned to places when the universe needs him to
> 
> Hope that clears stuff up in case it was confusing!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of violence and blood

Purpled knew that snooping through people's stuff was considered rude.

Purpled also didn't give a fuck.

That was why he was currently rummaging carefully and strategically through Tommy's home at almost 3am (he didn't know why Tommy wasn't here but he wasn't going to question it, he was probably at Sam's or something), looking for anything to might give him a hint as to why the boy had an obsidian weapon. Currently, he hadn't found anything useful.

He'd visited Tubbo just over a day ago now to see if he knew anything. 

Purpled's information extracting had been cut short by Sam and Tommy's arrival, but it didn't matter anyway. He was fairly certain Tubbo knew nothing of whatever was going on with Tommy... especially after that argument.

Purpled huffed in annoyance.

_Had this boy never heard of chest organisation?_

He eventually decided that he couldn't be bothered to search through the messy chests again, opting instead to sitting on the dirt floor in defeat.

He had known that the obsidian weapon would most likely be in his enderchest, where it wasn't accessible to him, but still he had been hoping for some sort of clue.

Purpled sighed, pushing himself to his feet.

_He wasn't going to let a child with terrible chest organisation and a secret hide whatever the hell was happening from him._

He traipsed into the room Tommy slept in.

It was filled with holes and patched up with random materials, a unmade bed that clearly hadn't been slept in in a while (if the slight layer of dust was anything to go by) pushed into the corner of the room.

Purpled set about searching, carefully lifting up the covers and checking under the mattress for anything that might give him the answers he wanted.

He had almost given up after half an hour of searching when he noticed something interesting.

Tommy's bed had a feather in it.

Odd.

Sure it wasn't exactly weird, except this wasn't a normal feather.

He was annoyed at himself for not spotting it sooner as it was way too big to belong to any bird that roamed the SMP.

Purpled lifted it carefully, holding it up to the singular torch in the room and watching how it glittered, the flames from the torch creating an illusion that it was burning, noting the resemblance it held to the feathers that had fallen from Phil's wings when he used them to protect him and Wilbur from the explosion.

The feather had seemed black when he had first found it, black like charcoal or soot. But now he held it close to the light he could see dark reds and oranges pulsing along the feather like embers.

It was really quite beautiful.

There was a legend that Purpled had once been told by a villager across the sea far far away from here on his travels. At the time he had laughed, belittled the villager. Purpled felt quite stupid now.

The legend went as so.

It was told in the land that during the time obsidian weapons were wielded, there was a special branch of warriors. They could wield the weapons like no other, their fighting more like a dangerous dance than the brute force that many were used to the warriors who possessed obsidian weapons exerting. It was told that they had wings, beautiful wings like none that had ever been seen before in any server. Legend says that they were often teenagers, teenagers who would appear out of nowhere like angels, when battles were being fought and soldiers were dying everywhere, they would appear in the centre of the violence. People who had seen it happen would claim that one second they had been a normal child, a teenager whose only mistake was letting themselves be dragged into war, the next they had been winged warriors, screams of pain ripping from their mouths as their wings unfurled from their backs, violence dancing in their eyes as the tide of the battle would turn, whatever side the teenager was on suddenly fighting with much more fervour as the teenager would kill and kill until finally taken out by an arrow that got past their defence or a sword in the back when they let their guard down. 

Purpled had been gifted a book by the villager, who had merely smiled sadly when Purpled laughed in her face and said, "Read it, for you will need it one day."

He had scoffed, taking the book anyway.

He had read it though, intrigued by the title.

_The Prince That Rose From The Ashes_

It told the story of a boy of fire and ash, born into the royal family of a different server and trained to fight from the moment he could walk. 

He had blond hair that would glimmer in sunlight like golden flames and blue eyes that burned like embers.

He would fight in battles and dine at fine dinner parties afterwards.

He would win every war he fought for his family, always coming home alongside his sister in time to dance at the ball their parents would be hosting, the pair inseparable.

Until one day, they were losing their battle.

He had watched as his sibling lost their life to the enemy, a scream of pain and fury ripping from his mouth, the sound temporarily halting the fighting as everyone turned to the sound of pure pain.

The story said that he grew wings as black as the night, unfurling from his back, appearing out of nowhere. That he took out half of the enemy's front line, blinded by rage and fury and grief as his parents watched, their mouths set in grim lines, as if they had known that one day this day would come.

The story said that when the enemy captured him and tried to burn his wings, they glowed red and orange like fire, absorbing the flames.

The story said that he escaped, killed as many of the enemy as possible before combusting in a shower of fire, embers of red and pieces of charcoal raining down as ashes floated through the air. 

The story ended with a paragraph that even at the time had made his skin prickle uneasily.

_It is thought that the Prince of Ashes (or the Ash Prince), a name loving bestowed upon his memory by the people he saved that day, vanished to a different server to save more lives. Tales of a child who appeared out of nowhere with knowledge of obsidian weapons and war, often accompanied by a young man with brown hair and odd brightly coloured clothing, turning the tide in battles in faraway lands, the legend of his blond hair and blue eyes that glowed like embers and wings that refused to burn in fire, brought back to the land by travellers from servers far and wide._

_Until one day, when the news stopped coming as peace fell universally across all servers, wars no longer raging._

_It is thought that The Prince of Ashes and his strange companion disappeared, no longer needed and slumbering until they were needed once again._

_There is no further known information about this legend._

Purpled had thought it was a load of shit to be honest.

But maybe... maybe there was something more to it.

Tommy had blond hair that looked like golden flames when the sun hit it.

Tommy had blue eyes that burned like embers when he was angry.

Tommy had a black feather in his bed, one that was black and glowed red and orange when held near flame.

Tommy had an obsidian weapon.

Tommy was Phil's adopted child, found by Wilbur in the woods when he was young..

But Tommy couldn't be the Prince from the story... right?

Because it was just a story...

Purpled pocketed the feather and swiftly exited Tommy's house, his leather boots making no sound on the wooden path despite his agitated pace. 

He was so wrapped up in his own head that he didn't notice Punz waiting in the shadows, hovering like he had been meaning to try and intercept Purpled and then thought better of it at the last moment.

Of course Tommy wasn't the Ash Prince.

Because the story wasn't real, and Tommy was just Tommy.

An immature child who was broken from war...

Purpled decided he was clearly losing his mind.

_He really should sleep more._

* * *

Sam blearily opened his eyes to the sound of Puffy admonishing someone.

"Tommy! If you try and steal some toast again I swear to gods I'll toast your fingers!"

"But it smells good..." Tommy whined.

"You can have some when the eggs are done!"

Tommy huffed loudly.

Sam smiled to himself as he slowly sat up, feeling a lot better now he'd slept.

Fran had lifted her head up the moment she felt him waking up, and she was wagging her tail with her tongue hanging out as he petted her head.

"Hi Fran." Sam muttered, stretching and then yawning.

He felt like he'd been asleep for days.

Tommy jumped to his feet as Sam emerged from his bedroom, Fran padding next to him with her tail wagging happily.

"Sam!" He called, scanning him from head to toe, noticing how Sam had replaced the bandage that Tommy had wrapped around the bleeding wound on his arm with a new, cleaner and better wrapped one.

Sam ruffled his hair, making him frown in annoyance.

_Will used to do that._

He hated it, used to sulk whenever Wilbur did it...

"How are you feeling?" Puffy asked, slapping Tommy's hand away with a spoon when he tried to sneak some bacon while she was distracted.

"Better." Sam replied, sliding into the seat next to Tommy at the kitchen island and smiling fondly as he watched Puffy deflect Tommy's continuous attempts at stealing food. 

"Good." Puffy grinned, finally giving Tommy the food he had been trying to swipe for the past half an hour. "You should shower by the way. You stink."

Tommy faked a loud gagging noise and dramatically pinched his nose. "Yeah Sam! How dare you smell in our presence!" 

Sam grinned, realising that Tommy was beginning to act like he used to before he got hurt by the wars. Puffy had noticed too and she smiled slightly, giving Fran a stern look when she tried to steal Puffy's bacon off of her plate. 

"I'll shower later." Sam promised.

Puffy gave him her best Mom look, pointing her fork at him (despite the fact it had a mushroom speared on it), "You'll shower as soon as you finish eating Sam, I refuse to let you leave this house smelling like that."

"This is my house."

"And?"

Tommy snorted, poked Sam in the side and whispered, "Now you've done it. You made Mum mad."

"You shut up!" Puffy grinned, throwing a balled up napkin at Tommy and making him shriek as he ducked. "You make me feel old when you say stuff like that!"

"Hey! That's not fair!" Tommy gasped, looking around for something to throw back that wasn't his half finished food.

"All is fair in love and war." Puffy smirked.

"That sounds like a quote from something." Tommy said. Sam watched as he slowly scrunched up a napkin he had found under the table so Puffy wouldn't see.

Puffy shrugged, "I have no idea."

Tommy threw it at her, hitting her directly in the face, "HA!"

He stopped laughing when he noticed Puffy planning something, her face splitting into a grin.

"No! We're even now! We're even! Tell her we're even Sam!"

Sam sighed, grinning as Tommy attempted to duck behind him. "Puffy. Be the adult here and leave it be."

Puffy gave him an indignant look. "He-"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I thought all was fair in-"

"Ugh. Shut up and shower Sam." Puffy grumbled, trying to hide her smile when Tommy cheered, clearly taking that as a win for him.

They didn't talk about what had happened with The Egg, or what had happened with Tommy and Tubbo, instead they worked on the hotel for a few hours, opting to watch Endgame together when darkness fell after Tommy begged and begged all day, Puffy joining them as she claimed she had nothing better to do. Sam knew that probably wasn't true. 

Both Tommy and Puffy ended up sleeping over again.

* * *

"The test is in two days, how are you feeling?"

Tubbo didn't jump despite the fact that he hadn't realised he wasn't alone, still feeling numb inside from his argument with Tommy.

"Fine." He replied, voice emotionless as he stared out at the sea.

"Not nervous at all?" Jack asked behind him, watching the teen sat on the edge of the stone pier. 

"Why would I be?"

Jack shrugged, "Dunno."

The sudden lack of emotions in the teen was concerning, even to Jack. 

It was as if the argument with Tommy had finally broken the boy.

Foolish and Charlie watched from near the high stone wall that surrounded Snowchester.

"He's not okay is he?" Charlie asked.

"Tubbo?" Foolish clarified.

Charlie nodded.

"No." Foolish replied softly. "No, he really isn't."

They were silent for a bit.

"I don't trust Jack." Foolish said quietly as they watched the man talk to the teen. "He's been sneaking around, keeping secrets. He's planning something."

Charlie nodded his head, agreeing. He'd noticed too, even if Tubbo hadn't, the poor boy still too naive despite everything he'd gone through.

"This nuke test we're not supposed to know about," Charlie started. "What if something goes wrong?"

The two knew they weren't supposed to know, but when two people in your village with a population of five start developing nukes, it doesn't exactly take long to find out. Especially when a big stone, industrial-like building appears with danger signs on the front that Jack and Tubbo were claiming was a mine shaft. Clearly it had been nothing of the sort.

"Nothing will go wrong." Foolish said, but even he didn't believe himself.

"But what if it does?" Charlie insisted, turning to look at Foolish, the slime hybrid staring at him worriedly through his glasses.

"Then I guess we have to move on." Foolish eventually said, gripping Charlie's shoulder comfortingly. "To the best of our abilities."

Charlie stared at the Totem hybrid's eyes, searching for security and comfort he wasn't going to find.

"To the best of our abilities."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter :P
> 
> Also the spelling correction on this app annoys me lol. I'm going to have to go through and look for all the times I wrote it at 3am so when it said "traveller" and "centre" were spelt like "traveler" and "center" I just believed it. Now it just said "spelt" isn't a word??? WHY ARE THERE RED LINES UNDER IT??


End file.
